I have a directory which has about 50 files and I would like to prepend "CD1" to all the file names. After reading here and here. I came up with the following command (using PowerShell ISE on Windows 10):
Get-ChildItem | Rename-Item -NewName {'CD1' + $_.Name}
but that prepended "CD1" several times to each file name. I also got the error:
Rename-Item : Could not find a part of the path.
At line:1 char:17
+ Get-ChildItem | Rename-Item -NewName {'CD1' + $_.Name}
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: (C:\Users\TOOdhm...CD1CD1CD149.mp3:String) [Rename-Item], DirectoryNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RenameItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
It seemed like it didn't know when to stop iterating through the directory so I used the ForEach-Object cmdlet and tried this:
Get-ChildItem | ForEach-Object { Rename-Item -NewName {('CD1' + $_.Name)} }
which did nothing and gave the error
Rename-Item : Cannot evaluate parameter 'NewName' because its argument is specified as a script block and there is no input. A script block cannot be evaluated without input.
Does any one have any clue why I am getting this issue? I could have manually renamed the files by now but both these commands should work. I even found a website where they used an example with almost exactly(I think in their example they may be appending) these commands in this format and it's bugging me that they don't work for me.
One way to avoid getting already renamed items processed again is to enclose Get-ChildItem in parentheses.
(Get-ChildItem) | Rename-Item -NewName {'CD1'+ $_.name}
To avoid another prepend on successive runs exclude files beginning with CD1
Get-ChildItem | Where {$_.Name -notmatch '^CD1'} | Rename-Item -NewName {'CD1'+ $_.name}
Or
gci -Exclude CD1* | Ren -NewName {'CD1'+ $_.name}
In your second attempt, you're using braces for a script-block where you don't need one.
The following worked for me
Get-ChildItem | % {Rename-Item -NewName ('CD1'+ $_.Name) -Path $_.Name}
Note the extra -Path to repeat the current path of the file.
Related
I have been practicing PowerShell by dealing with some of the tasks I could do in the file explorer. I am organizing some files for a python project which I am doing. My goal was to copy all python files in the current directory into the "V0.0_noProgressBar" directory:
ls -Filter "*.py" | copy $_ "V0.0_noProgressBar"
but it fails:
Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Path' because it is null.
At line:1 char:26
+ ls -filter "*.py" | copy $_ "V0.0_noProgressBar"
+ ~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Copy-Item], ParameterBindingValidationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorNullNotAllowed,
Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.CopyItemCommand
I assume this should be sufficient information to figure this out, let me know if more is needed. I have run into similar issues a number of times, so there must be a fundamental problem with my understanding of the placeholder $_.
This can be simplified to:
Copy-Item *.py V0.0_noProgressBar
To answer original question, why $_ is not working:
$_ is only valid in script contexts, not just anywhere in the pipeline. E. g. you could use it in a script block of ForEach-Object:
Get-ChildItem -filter "*.py" | ForEach-Object { Copy-Item $_ "V0.0_noProgressBar" }
To augment zett42's succinct answer. $_ makes an appearance in several areas of PowerShell. Some cmdlets allow it's use in a script block the output of which is treated as the argument to the parameter. In keeping with the question the *-Item cmdlets can make use of $_.
Get-ChildItem -Filter "*.txt" | Copy-Item -Destination { "C:\"+ $_.Name }
Obviously that's just an example. Perhaps a more useful case is Rename-Item -NewName { ... $_ ... }. -NewName which also works this way.
Other common cmdlets that make use of $_ are Select-Object, Sort-Object, & Group-Object. Overlapping some of these $_ is used by many cmdlets to help define calculated properties. I strongly recommend reading this about topic. Along with the use of $_ calculated properties are extremely useful. I use them with Select-Object everyday!
If you really want to pass a collection of files through a pipeline,
you can do this:
ls -Filter *.py | Copy-Item -Destination "V0.0-NoProgressBar"
Here the Copy-Item cmdlet has no -Path parameter, so it gets the files from the pipeline. See Help Copy-Item -full to see that the -Path parameter can accept pipeline input.
This is not as simple as answers already given, but it does show an alternative to trying to use $_ in a context where it is unavailable.
I am able to batch rename files in a working directory by using:
Dir | %{Rename-Item $_ -NewName ("0{0}.wav" -f $nr++)}
However I want the file rename to start at something other than zero. Say 0500, and rename sequentially in order.
Dir | %{Rename-Item $_ -NewName ("0{500}.wav" -f $nr++)}
returns error.
How can I tell rename to start at a number other than 0?
You can initialize the counter beforehand to 500. Also, you don't need to use a ForEach-Object loop (%) for this, because the NewName parameter can take a scriptblock.
Important here is that you need to put the Get-ChildItem part in between brackets to let that finish before renaming the items, otherwise you may end up trying to rename files that have already been renamed.
$nr = 500
(Get-ChildItem -Path 'D:\Test' -Filter '*.wav' -File) | Rename-Item -NewName { '{0:D4}{1}' -f ($script:nr++), $_.Extension }
I need to move set of specific files having different extension to another folder.
I have following filtered files in the directory.
file1.txt
file2.xml
file3.dll
I have kept the above files in the variable $files and I need to move each of files to another folder.
Below is the code I tried.
foreach ($fileType in $files) {
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Files -Filter "$fileType*." -Recurse |
Move-Item -Destination C:\Dest
}
I am getting following error
Get-ChildItem : Illegal characters in path.
At line:1 char:38
+ ... lude_files){Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Files
Appreciate if anyone can help on this?
An easy way to do this
ls C:\files | Foreach {
Move-Item -Path C:\files\$filetype -Destination C:\dest
}
If all the files you are after share a common 'starts-with' name like file as in your example, the below should do what you want. It uses the -Include parameter where you can add an array of (in this case) extensions to look for.
Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Files' -Filter 'file*' -Include '*.txt','*.xml','*.dll' -Recurse |
Move-Item -Destination 'C:\Dest'
Note: the -Include parameter only works when also used together with the -Recurse switch, OR by appending \* after the path (like in C:\Files\*)
I have almost no powershell experience but was using it as a means to an end to replace possibly problematic characters in FAT32 filenames, such as: , . / ' : etc.
I discovered an article positing use of rename-item -NewName command, whichs works fine inside a specific directory containing files meeting said criteria, but when used at a level above this, I can't figure out how to make the script fully recursive.
I want to replace spaces, apostrophes, instances of periods outside of file extensions, and dollar signs in filenames of audio tracks inside a music library folder that's laid out like so**, running powershell script from music folder to hit everything inside and below that:
X:\home\audio\**music**\[artist_here]\[album_here]\FILE.mp3
Can someone explain the correct syntax to accomplish this?
I also tried using path and /s:
dir X\pathnamehere\ /s | rename-item -NewName {$_.name -replace " ","_"}
but receive another error:
dir : Second path fragment must not be a drive or UNC name.
Parameter name: path2
At line:1 char:1
+ dir X:\home\Audio\Music\ /s | rename-item -NewName {$_.name -repla ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (X:\home\Audio\Music:String)
[Get-ChildItem], ArgumentException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId :
DirArgumentError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetChildItemCommand
dir | rename-item -NewName {$_.name -replace " ","_"}
when running
dir | rename-item -NewName {$_.name -replace " ","_"}
at multiple levels above where files to be renamed are located, I receive the following error for EVERY directory inside \music:
"rename-item : Source and destination path must be different."
+ dir | rename-item -NewName {$_.name -replace " ","_"}
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError:
(X:\home\Audio\Music\artistname:String) [Rename-Item], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId :
RenameItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
Thank you!
P.S. if this can be accomplished with a simpler command prompt batch file, feel free to enlighten me.
Found a solution here:
Recursively renaming files with Powershell
Here's their example:
Get-ChildItem -File -Recurse | % { Rename-Item -Path $_.PSPath -NewName $_.Name.replace(".mkv.mp4",".mp4")}
In powershell Dir is an alias of Get-ChildItem and % is 'ForEach'. You were pretty close.
I have subfolders which have names:
original_Optimize
Original_optimize
original_optimize
Original_Optimize
I would like to rename all of these to:
Original_Optimize
Is there an easy way of doing this in windows (perhaps using powershell or something in command prompt ) ?
You can do that in two Rename-Item calls. The first would add a prefix to each name to avoid the 'Source and destination path must be different.' error. The second run will remove the prefix.
Get-ChildItem -Filter original_optimize -Recurse |
Rename-Item -NewName __foo__Original_Optimize -PassThru |
Rename-Item -NewName {$_.Name -replace '^__foo__'} -PassThru
Try this.
Get-ChildItem C:\path-to-directory -Recurse -Filter *foo* | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -replace 'foo', 'bar'} -verbose