I was trying to use dir command to list recursively all files that end with .cpp in a given directory, I tried to follow various solutions but my powershell seems not to accept any options after '/' sign as seen on the picture bellow:
Example
The command I initially tried was 'dir sourcefolder "*.cpp"' but it only lists files in a given folder (because I cant provide any additional options as seen in microsoft doc), also any example command provided there does not work for me giving the same error as shown in example above.
here is how I will bring out all the files in .cpp.
Here is a small program in powershell :
$path = "C:\temp\"
$filter = "*.cpp"
$files = Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Filter $filter
Write-Host "here, all the .cpp files in '$path' :"
Write-Host $files -Separator "`r`n"
I prefer to use the cmdlet "Get-ChildItem" rather than "dir".
Here the content folder for my test
And, why so many / ?
I've seen variations of this question answered, but typically using something like 7zip. I'm trying to find a solution that will work with the capabilities that come with windows absent any additional tools.
I have a directory that contains several hundred subdirectories. I need to individually compress each subdirectory....so I'll wind up with several hundred zip files, one per subdirectory. This is on a machine at work where I don't have administrative privileges to install new software...hence the desire to stay away from 7zip, winRar, etc.
If this has already been answered elsewhere, my apologies...
Never tried that myself, but there is Compress-Archive:
The Compress-Archive cmdlet creates a zipped (or compressed) archive file from one or more specified files or folders. An archive file allows multiple files to be packaged, and optionally compressed, into a single zipped file for easier distribution and storage. An archive file can be compressed by using the compression algorithm specified by the CompressionLevel parameter.
Because Compress-Archive relies upon the Microsoft .NET Framework API System.IO.Compression.ZipArchive to compress files, the maximum file size that you can compress by using Compress-Archive is currently 2 GB. This is a limitation of the underlying API.
Here's a sample script I just hacked together:
# configure as needed
$source = "c:\temp"
$target = "d:\temp\test"
# grab source file names and list them
$files = gci $source -recurse
$files
# target exists?
if( -not (test-path $target)) {
new-item $target -type directory
}
# compress, I am using -force here to overwrite existing files
$files | foreach{
$dest = "$target\" + $_.name + ".zip"
compress-archive $_ $dest -CompressionLevel Optimal -force
}
# list target dir contents
gci $target -recurse
You may have to improve it a bit when it comes to subfolders. In the above version, subfolders are compressed as a whole into a single file. This might not exactly be what you want.
Get-ChildItem c:\path\of\your\folder | ForEach-Object {
$path = $_.FullName
Compress-Archive -Path $path -DestinationPath "$path.zip"
}
I put this, as a quick snippet. Don't hesitate to comment if this does not fit with your request.
In a folder X, there are subfolders Y1, Y2...
Y1.zip, Y2.zip... will be created.
use PowerShell go the the path that you would like to compress, do:
$folderlist = Get-ChildItem "."
foreach ($Folder in $folderlist) { Compress-Archive -path $Folder.Name -destinationPath "$($Folder.Name).zip"}
I'm writing a simple script to delete USMT migration folders after a certain amount of days:
## Server List ##
$servers = "Delorean","Adelaide","Brisbane","Melbourne","Newcastle","Perth"
## Number of days (-3 is over three days ago) ##
$days = -3
$timelimit = (Get-Date).AddDays($days)
foreach ($server in $servers)
{
$deletedusers = #()
$folders = Get-ChildItem \\$server\USMT$ | where {$_.psiscontainer}
write-host "Checking server : " $server
foreach ($folder in $folders)
{
If ($folder.LastWriteTime -lt $timelimit -And $folder -ne $null)
{
$deletedusers += $folder
Remove-Item -recurse -force $folder.fullname
}
}
write-host "Users deleted : " $deletedusers
write-host
}
However I keep hitting the dreaded Remove-Item : The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters.
I've been looking at workarounds and alternatives but they all revolve around me caring what is in the folder.
I was hoping for a more simple solution as I don't really care about the folder contents if it is marked for deletion.
Is there any native Powershell cmdlet other than Remove-Item -recurse that can accomplish what I'm after?
I often have this issue with node projects. They nest their dependencies and once git cloned, it's difficult to delete them. A nice node utility I came across is rimraf.
npm install rimraf -g
rimraf <dir>
Just as CADII said in another answer: Robocopy is able to create paths longer than the limit of 260 characters. Robocopy is also able to delete such paths. You can just mirror some empty folder over your path containing too long names in case you want to delete it.
For example:
robocopy C:\temp\some_empty_dir E:\temp\dir_containing_very_deep_structures /MIR
Here's the Robocopy reference to know the parameters and various options.
I've created a PowerShell function that is able to delete a long path (>260) using the mentioned robocopy technique:
function Remove-PathToLongDirectory
{
Param(
[string]$directory
)
# create a temporary (empty) directory
$parent = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath()
[string] $name = [System.Guid]::NewGuid()
$tempDirectory = New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path (Join-Path $parent $name)
robocopy /MIR $tempDirectory.FullName $directory | out-null
Remove-Item $directory -Force | out-null
Remove-Item $tempDirectory -Force | out-null
}
Usage example:
Remove-PathToLongDirectory c:\yourlongPath
This answer on SuperUser solved it for me: https://superuser.com/a/274224/85532
Cmd /C "rmdir /S /Q $myDir"
I learnt a trick a while ago that often works to get around long file path issues. Apparently when using some Windows API's certain functions will flow through legacy code that can't handle long file names. However if you format your paths in a particular way, the legacy code is avoided. The trick that solves this problem is to reference paths using the "\\?\" prefix. It should be noted that not all API's support this but in this particular case it worked for me, see my example below:
The following example fails:
PS D:\> get-childitem -path "D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -hidden
Directory: D:\System Volume Information\dfsr
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a-hs 10/09/2014 11:10 PM 834424 FileIDTable_2
-a-hs 10/09/2014 8:43 PM 3211264 SimilarityTable_2
PS D:\> Remove-Item -Path "D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -recurse -force
Remove-Item : The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260
characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters.
At line:1 char:1
+ Remove-Item -Path "D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -recurse -force
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: (D:\System Volume Information\dfsr:String) [Remove-Item], PathTooLongExcepti
on
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RemoveItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand
PS D:\>
However, prefixing the path with "\\?\" makes the command work successfully:
PS D:\> Remove-Item -Path "\\?\D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -recurse -force
PS D:\> get-childitem -path "D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -hidden
PS D:\>
If you have ruby installed, you can use Fileman:
gem install fileman
Once installed, you can simply run the following in your command prompt:
fm rm your_folder_path
This problem is a real pain in the neck when you're developing in node.js on Windows, so fileman becomes really handy to delete all the garbage once in a while
This is a known limitation of PowerShell. The work around is to use dir cmd (sorry, but this is true).
http://asysadmin.tumblr.com/post/17654309496/powershell-path-length-limitation
or as mentioned by AaronH answer use \?\ syntax is in this example to delete build
dir -Include build -Depth 1 | Remove-Item -Recurse -Path "\\?\$($_.FullName)"
If all you're doing is deleting the files, I use a function to shorten the names, then I delete.
function ConvertTo-ShortNames{
param ([string]$folder)
$name = 1
$items = Get-ChildItem -path $folder
foreach ($item in $items){
Rename-Item -Path $item.FullName -NewName "$name"
if ($item.PSIsContainer){
$parts = $item.FullName.Split("\")
$folderPath = $parts[0]
for ($i = 1; $i -lt $parts.Count - 1; $i++){
$folderPath = $folderPath + "\" + $parts[$i]
}
$folderPath = $folderPath + "\$name"
ConvertTo-ShortNames $folderPath
}
$name++
}
}
I know this is an old question, but I thought I would put this here in case somebody needed it.
There is one workaround that uses Experimental.IO from Base Class Libraries project. You can find it over on poshcode, or download from author's blog. 260 limitation is derived from .NET, so it's either this, or using tools that do not depend on .NET (like cmd /c dir, as #Bill suggested).
Combination of tools can work best, try doing a dir /x to get the 8.3 file name instead. You could then parse out that output to a text file then build a powershell script to delete the paths that you out-file'd. Take you all of a minute. Alternatively you could just rename the 8.3 file name to something shorter then delete.
For my Robocopy worked in 1, 2 and 3
First create an empty directory lets say c:\emptydir
ROBOCOPY c:\emptydir c:\directorytodelete /purge
rmdir c:\directorytodelete
This is getting old but I recently had to work around it again. I ended up using 'subst' as it didn't require any other modules or functions be available on the PC this was running from. A little more portable.
Basically find a spare drive letter, 'subst' the long path to that letter, then use that as the base for GCI.
Only limitation is that the $_.fullname and other properties will report the drive letter as the root path.
Seems to work ok:
$location = \\path\to\long\
$driveLetter = ls function:[d-z]: -n | ?{ !(test-path $_) } | random
subst $driveLetter $location
sleep 1
Push-Location $driveLetter -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Get-ChildItem -Recurse
subst $driveLetter /D
That command is obviously not to delete files but can be substituted.
PowerShell can easily be used with AlphaFS.dll to do actual file I/O stuff
without the PATH TOO LONG hassle.
For example:
Import-Module <path-to-AlphaFS.dll>
[Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.Directory]::Delete($path, $True)
Please see at Codeplex: https://alphafs.codeplex.com/ for this .NET project.
I had the same issue while trying to delete folders on a remote machine.
Nothing helped but... I found one trick :
# 1:let's create an empty folder
md ".\Empty" -erroraction silentlycontinue
# 2: let's MIR to the folder to delete : this will empty the folder completely.
robocopy ".\Empty" $foldertodelete /MIR /LOG+:$logname
# 3: let's delete the empty folder now:
remove-item $foldertodelete -force
# 4: we can delete now the empty folder
remove-item ".\Empty" -force
Works like a charm on local or remote folders (using UNC path)
Adding to Daniel Lee's solution,
When the $myDir has spaces in the middle it gives FILE NOT FOUND errors considering set of files splitted from space. To overcome this use quotations around the variable and put powershell escape character to skip the quatations.
PS>cmd.exe /C "rmdir /s /q <grave-accent>"$myDir<grave-accent>""
Please substitute the proper grave-accent character instead of <grave-accent>
SO plays with me and I can't add it :). Hope some one will update it for others to understand easily
Just for completeness, I have come across this a few more times and have used a combination of both 'subst' and 'New-PSDrive' to work around it in various situations.
Not exactly a solution, but if anyone is looking for alternatives this might help.
Subst seems very sensitive to which type of program you are using to access the files, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, seems to be the same with New-PSDrive.
Any thing developed using .NET out of the box will fail with paths too long. You will have to move them to 8.3 names, PInVoke (Win32) calls, or use robocopy
Story:
I have multiple folders with 1000+ files in each that are named similar to each other but are slightly different but they relate to the same content.
For example, in one folder I have files named quite simply "Jobs to do.doc" and in another folder "Jobs to do (UK) (Europe).doc" etc.
This is on Windows 10, not Linux.
Question:
Is there a script to compare each folder's content and rename them based on minimum similarity? So the end result would be to remove all the jargon and have each file in each folder (multiple) the same as one another but STILL remain in the retrospective folder?
*Basically compare multiple folder content to one folders contents and rename them so each file in each folder is named the same?
Example:
D:/Folder1/Name_Of_File1.jpeg
D:/Folder2/Name_Of_File1 (Europe).jpeg
D:/Folder3/Name_of_File1_(Random).jpeg
D:/folder1/another_file.doc
D:/Folder2/another_file_(date_month_year).txt
D:/Folder3/another_file(UK).XML
I have used different file extensions in the above example in hope someone can write a script to ignore file extensions.
I hope this make sense. So either a script to remove the content in brackets and keep the files integrity or rename ALL files across all folders based on minimum similarity.
The problem is its 1000+ files in each folder so want to run it as an automated job.
Thanks in advance.
If the stuff you want to get rid of is always in brackets then you could write a regex like
(.*?)([\s|_|]*\(.*\))
Try something like this
$folder = Get-ChildItem 'C:\TestFolder'
$regex = '(.*?)([\s|_|]*\(.*\))'
foreach ($file in $folder){
if ($file.BaseName -match $regex){
Rename-Item -Path $file.FullName -NewName "$($matches[1])$($file.extension)" -Verbose #-WhatIf
}
}
Regarding consistency you could run a precheck using same regex
#change each filename if it matches regex and store only it's new basename
$folder1 = get-childitem 'D:\T1' | foreach {if ($_.BaseName -match $regex){$matches[1]}else{$_.BaseName}}
$folder2 = get-childitem 'D:\T2' | foreach {if ($_.BaseName -match $regex){$matches[1]}else{$_.BaseName}}
#compare basenames in two folders - if all are the same nothing will be returned
Compare-Object $folder1 $folder2
Maybe you could build with that idea.
I'm trying to go through all the files within a folder and rename them so that the name becomes whatever is between the 2nd and 3rd _.
e.g.: 1_2_3_4.pdf becomes 3.pdf
Having looked around, I was able to find the link below which helps with a very similar issue - but I am unable to make it work for my specific issue. Would anyone minding helping with this?
Find character position and update file name
Use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to retrieve all files and rename it using the Rename-Item cmdlet (together with a regex replace):
Get-ChildItem 'c:\your_folder' |
Rename-Item -NewName { '{0}{1}' -f ($_.Name -replace '.*?_.*?_([^_]+).*', '$1'), $_.Extension }