PowerShell 3.0 Get-Childitem (gci)

What’s New with PowerShell 3.0 Get-Childitem?

In PowerShell v 3.0 the Get-ChildItem cmdlet has new parameters.  You can list just folders (and not files) by appending -Directory.  I also like the -Attributes parameter, which can filter system or hidden files.

Windows PowerShell 3.0 Get-ChildItem Topics

• Example 1: List Only Folders with -Directory
• Example 2: Get-ChildItem -Attributes
• PowerShell 3.0 Get-ChildItem Intellisense
• Example 3: Old Style Method of Listing System Files
• Problem with PowerShell 3.0’s Where Clause

 ♣

Example 1: List Only Windows Folders with -Directory

The scenario: You just want a list of the folders or directory names, you don’t want to be snowed under with file names.

The solution: -Directory. Simply append this parameter to the regular Get-ChildItem command thus:

Note 1: Just in case you installed the operating system at an usual location employ WMI to find the SystemDirectory.

Note 2: This example uses GCI, which is the famous alias for Get-ChildItem.

Note 3: You could swap -File for -Directory and contrast the results.

Note 4: You could specify the path with $Env:WinDir instead of using WMI.

Guy Recommends: Free WMI Monitor for PowerShell

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is one of the hidden treasures of Microsoft’s operating systems.  Fortunately, SolarWinds have created a Free WMI Monitor so that you can discover these gems of performance information, and thus improve your PowerShell scripts.

Take the guess work out of which WMI counters to use when scripting the operating system, Active Directory, or Exchange Server. Give this WMI monitor a try – it’s free.

Download your free copy of WMI Monitor

Example 2: Get-ChildItem -Attributes

DOS experts found PowerShell 2.0 frustrating because there were commands you could do with DIR that you could not achieve with GCI.  Now that deficiency has been rectified, for instance see how easily you can filter lists of files by attribute.

Note 4:  Whereas PowerShell cmdlets all have singular nouns, plurals crop-up amongst the parameters.  My point, -Attributes is plural and this led me to believe you could filter on multiple attributes.

Note 5:  I also stumbled across the handy ‘Not’ operator, it was the exclamation mark (!).  However, you have to precede it with the and operator, thus (+!)   Here is an actual example:

Note 6:  This displays files that are hidden but NOT read only.

PowerShell 3.0 Get-ChildItem Intellisense Research

Thanks to the new PowerShell intellisense you can easily research parameters for cmdlets such as Get-ChildItem.

The secret is to type the cmdlet’s name slowly, and watch-out for little context menus to appear on screen.  For example, see what happened when I typed GCI C:\windows\system32, and then as I typed a dash –

… see screenshot to the right.

See my PowerShell Get-File function.

Example 3: Old Style Method of Listing System Files

PowerShell v 2.0 lacks the Attributes parameter thus it’s more difficult to list files based on their System, Hidden or ReadOnly value.  One way would be to use a Where-Object clause, but PowerShell 3.0’s -Attribute method is much more efficient.

Note 7: Here is where you can see more about PowerShell -Recurse and -Force parameters.

Guy Recommends:  SolarWinds’ Free Bulk Import Tool

Import users from a spreadsheet.  Just provide a list of the users with their fields in the top row, and save as .csv file.  Then launch this FREE utility and match your fields with AD’s attributes, click and import the users.

Optionally, you can provide the name of the OU where the new accounts will be born. Download your FREE bulk import tool.

PowerShell 3.0 Where-Object with GCI

Firstly, I digress in order to the cmdlets properties with Get-Member (GM)

Note 8: The point is we can see there is a file property called ‘Extension’.  Incidentally GM (Get-Member) reveals properties that you don’t see in explorer, for example, CreationTimeUtc.

Scenario: We want a list of the dynamic link library (.dll) files in the System32 folder.

Method: We employ a Where-Object (alias ‘Where’) clause.

Problem with PowerShell 3.0’s Where Clause

Following the above example you would think that | Where CreationTime.Year -gt 2010 would provide a list of files that were born in 2011, but it doesn’t.

Note 9: Although the above example completes without error it does not display any files.  Just in case there are no matching files, change -gt to -lt.  Still no files appear.

Solution: Revert to the ‘Old’ PowerShell v 2.0 Where syntax, complete with {Curly brackets}, $_. and ‘single speech mark’.

• See more on PowerShell’s Where-Object
• See more on PowerShell 3.0 Get-ChildItem

Guy Recommends: SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset v10

This Engineer’s Toolset v10 provides a comprehensive console of 50 utilities for troubleshooting computer problems.  Guy says it helps me monitor what’s occurring on the network, and each tool teaches me more about how the underlying system operates.

There are so many good gadgets; it’s like having free rein of a sweetshop.  Thankfully the utilities are displayed logically: monitoring, network discovery, diagnostic, and Cisco tools.  Try the SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset now!

Download your fully functional trial copy of the Engineer’s Toolset v10

Get-ChildItem Has Three Aliases

With Microsoft, there are always at least three ways of doing everything, what seems like redundancy when you are an expert, seems like perspective when you are a beginner.  Get-ChildItem has not one, but three aliases check thus:

GCI
LS  (Old list)
DIR (For DOS die-hards)

See examples of PowerShell v 3.0 foreach »

Summary of PowerShell 3.0 Get-ChildItem New Features

PowerShell 3.0 brings has extra parameters to many cmdlets, for example DOS lovers missed the equivelent of Dir *. in PowerShell v 2.0’s Get-ChildItem.  I also like the -Attributes parameter to filter ReadOnly files.  Learn more for yourself through the Intellisense context sensitive menus.

See more Microsoft PowerShell v 3.0

• PowerShell 3.0  • What’s New in PowerShell 3.0  • PowerShell 3.0 Foreach-Object

• PowerShell Show-Command  • Out-GridView -PassThru  • PowerShell Ordered Hash Tables

• PowerShell Home  • PowerShell 3.0 Get-ChildItem  • PowerShell 3 -NotIn  • PowerShell 3.0 Where