How to use curly braces path name in windows? - windows

Question

I used to use paths like this ls {path1,path2}/* in Linux but in Windows PowerShell, I got the following error
At line:1 char:10
+ ls {path1,path2}/*
+ ~
Missing argument in parameter list.
+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MissingArgument
I tried dir {path1,path2}/* instead of ls {path1,path2}/* but the same error thrown!!

Answer 1

You should use the proper cmdlet/alias for the environment you are working in (consider on linux PowerShell Core ls refers to the system ls not the PoSh gci)
PowerShell allows wildcards *?(and ranges[0-2]) on multple levels, so this should do:
Get-ChildItem -Path some\verbose[12]\dir\* -Include *.ext1,*.ext2
In case the part of the path differs completely you'll have to supply an array:
Get-ChildItem -Path some\this\dir\*,some\that\dir\* -Include *.ext1,*.ext2

Answer 2

I think what you want is this:
ls path1,path2 -recurse
Path1 and Path2 will either need to be variables or quoted Strings.
Here is an example
PS C:\> ls "c:\temp\test1","c:\temp\test2" -recurse
Directory: C:\temp\test1
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
d----- 2/14/2019 10:29 AM test1subdir
Directory: C:\temp\test1\test1subdir
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 2/14/2019 10:29 AM 13 test1file.txt
Directory: C:\temp\test2
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 2/14/2019 10:30 AM 6 test2file.log
I know this may be crazy, but you can create a function that will nearly replicate what you are trying to do:
function new-ls {
param([Parameter(Position=0)]
[string]$Path,
[Parameter(Position=1)]
[string[]]$Includes)
$StrMatch = ($Path | sls -pattern "^(.*?){(.*?),(.*?)}(.*?)$" -allmatches).matches.groups.value
$NewPaths = #(($StrMatch[1] + $StrMatch[2] + $StrMatch[4]), ($StrMatch[1] + $StrMatch[3] + $StrMatch[4]))
ls $NewPaths -include $Includes -recurse
}
# Running the code
PS C:\temp> new-ls "c:\temp\{test1,test2}\*"
Directory: C:\temp\test1\test1subdir
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 2/14/2019 10:29 AM 13 test1file.txt
Directory: C:\temp\test2
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 2/14/2019 10:30 AM 6 test2file.log
PS C:\temp> new-ls "c:\temp\{test1,test2}\*" "*.txt"
Directory: C:\temp\test1\test1subdir
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 2/14/2019 10:29 AM 13 test1file.txt
PS C:\temp> new-ls "c:\temp\{test1,test2}\*" "*.txt","*.log"
Directory: C:\temp\test1\test1subdir
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 2/14/2019 10:29 AM 13 test1file.txt
Directory: C:\temp\test2
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 2/14/2019 10:30 AM 6 test2file.log