move-item and maintain folder hierarchy

I've been working on a script to move old files from folders in a directory
to a different drive/file location.  I need this because the current drive
gets filled up over time so I want to move the older files to an "archive"
location which is compressed.

The main problem I'm having is that when it moves the files to the new
location it doesn't create the folder structure.  Is there a way for it to
create the folders if the original item was nested in a folder?

Any suggestions? Thanks!

get-childitem -recurse | where-object { $_.CreationTime -ilt
[datetime]::now.adddays(-120) } | move-item -destination 'C:\Documents and
Settings\administrator\My Documents\My Scripts\Location2'

Greg, I suspect that this is a bug.

Greg, I suspect that this is a bug. In my testing, I'm seeing that Move-Item
maintains only the first level of directory structure. Is that what you see?

--
June Blender [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Documentation
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

move-item and maintain folder hierarchy

The problem you get is that you're essentially running:

foreach($file in get-childitem -recurse)
{
move -source $file -destination 'myPath'
}

So each and every file that passes your tests gets moved to the same
destination.  One fix would be to vary the destination based on what file
you are moving.  For example:

get-childitem -rec | where-object { ... } | move-item -destination {
join-path 'c:\foo'  $_.FullName.SubString($pwd.path.length) }

The substring part is basically eliminating the current directory from the
full path of the item, and then I prepend the destination directory.  I
think that might work. :)  Try it out, let me know.

--
Marcel Ortiz Soto [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell, Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Thank you!

Thank you!  That worked except I get the following error:


Move-Item : The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process.
At line:1 char:102
+ get-childitem -recurse | where-object { $_.CreationTime -ilt
[datetime]::now.adddays(0) } | move-item  <<<< -destinat
ion {
Move-Item : Could not find a part of the path.
At line:1 char:102
+ get-childitem -recurse | where-object { $_.CreationTime -ilt
[datetime]::now.adddays(0) } | move-item  <<<< -destinat
ion {
Move-Item : Could not find a part of the path.
At line:1 char:102
+ get-childitem -recurse | where-object { $_.CreationTime -ilt
[datetime]::now.adddays(0) } | move-item  <<<< -destinat
ion {



It gives these errors, yet it still moves the files.  Can you explain why?

Greg
=====================

In case any newbies are reading, Marcel used a clever method for deleting the

In case any newbies are reading, Marcel used a clever method for deleting the
current directory from a path. You might want to study this method and store
it away for future use.

As a bonus, it shows how to use properties and methods of strings on
non-string objects. Essentially, you apply the property/method to a string
property of the non-string object.

By the way, Marcel's solution uses the $pwd automatic variable, which always
contains the path to the current directory.

PS C:\ps-test> $pwd
Path
----
C:\ps-test

$pwd is missing from the version of about_automatic_variables shipped with
Windows PowerShell 1.0, but it will appear in updates. Sorry about that.

-------------

To delete the current directory from a file or directory path:

1. Find the length (the number of characters) of the current directory path.
Use the Length property of the file path.

PS C:\ps-test> $pwd                 # a PathInfo object
Path
----
C:\ps-test

PS C:\ps-test> $pwd.path            # a string
C:\ps-test

PS C:\ps-test> $pwd.path.length     # the length of the path string
10

(HINT: $pwd is a PathInfo object, so it doesn't have a Length property, but
its   Path property is a string, which does have a Length property.)


2. Find the original, fully-qualified path of the file, which includes the
current directory. Use the FullName property of the file (or directory),
which is a string.

PS C:\ps-test> (get-childitem C:\ps-test\cad\tmp.txt).fullname
C:\ps-test\cad\tmp.txt


3. Use the SubString method on the FullName property of the original file
path. The SubString method counts over the specified number of characters,
and then selects the remainder of the string.

(HINT: You can't use the SubString method on the file path, which is a
FileInfo object, but you can use it on the value of the FullName property of
the FileInfo object, which is a string.)

For more information about the Substring method, see:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa904307(VS.71).aspx.)


# <File> | $_.FullName

PS C:\ps-test> (dir C:\ps-test\cad\tmp.txt).FullName
C:\ps-test\cad\tmp.txt


# <File> | $_.FullName.Substring(<length-of-current-directory-path>)

PS C:\ps-test>(dir
C:\ps-test\cad\tmp.txt).FullName.SubString($pwd.path.length)
\cad.tmp.txt

In this case, Marcel used the Join-Path cmdlet to create a new path. He
appended the remainder of the file path to a new path header, C:\Foo:

$_FullName.SubString($pwd.path.length)

C:\Foo\cad\tmp.txt

This was a great solution for this task, but it's also a great strategy for
many different tasks.

--
June Blender [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Documentation
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Newbie using script but fails

Hi,



I'm looking for some help with an administrative script I've written in Powershell using this post.  I've written a lot of vbscripts but don't know enough about powershell to troubleshoot this issue. Here's my problem....



My script looks like this:



$Path = "D:\StudentFolders"

$Dir = get-childitem $Path -recurse | where {$_.extension -eq ".swf"} | where{$_.Name -notmatch "button*"} | move-item -destination {join-path -path 'D:\File_server\Flash_Items' -childpath $_.FullName.Substring(17) }



The purpose of the script is find .swf files, check that they match certain criteria in the name and then move that file to a different location but maintaining the folder path. When I run the script with the -whatif parameter the script runs through showing that it would move the file from its source to its destination and maintaining the folder structure. However when I remove the -whatif it fails saying:

Move-Item : Could not find a part of the path.

At C:\Powershell\script.ps1:2 char:119

+ $Dir = get-childitem $Path -recurse | where {$_.extension -eq ".swf"} | where{$_.Name -notmatch "button"} | move-item <<<< -destination {join-path -path 'D:\File_server\Flash_Items' -childpath $_.FullName.Substring(17) }



If I remove the join-path cmdlet and just specify a directory to put all the files the script also works so I wonder whether it's how the script is handling the string element of the Files ie not getting the Fullname property of the file to get the string object so it can be manipulated. However, as I said I'm a newbie to Powershell so would appreciate any help people could give to get this working.



Thank you

Hi again,Ok, taking onboard all your suggestions (for which I am most

Hi again,

Ok, taking onboard all your suggestions (for which I am most grateful),
modified the script and the error comes back:

Expressions are only permitted as the first element of a pipeline.
At C:\Powershell\test.ps1:2 char:139
+ dir -r $Path *.swf -exclude button* |{move-item -Dest (join-path -path
'D:\File_server\Flash_Items' -childpath $_.FullName.Substring(17))} <<<<

Thanks for everybody's time on this and welcome any more help that people
are willing to offer.

Thank you

Newbie using script but fails

Ok, taking onboard all your suggestions (for which I am most grateful),
modified the script and the error comes back:

Expressions are only permitted as the first element of a pipeline.
At C:\Powershell\test.ps1:2 char:139
+ dir -r $Path *.swf -exclude button* |{move-item -Dest (join-path -path
'D:\File_server\Flash_Items' -childpath $_.FullName.Substring(17))} <<<<

Thanks for everybody's time on this and welcome any more help that people
are willing to offer.

Thank you

Newbie using script but fails

h
t
d

You do not need to surround the last part with curly braces.  I think
that is what is causing the error.

Hi folks,Tojo thanks for the tip, it worked but now I get a different error

Hi folks,

Tojo thanks for the tip, it worked but now I get a different error which I
think now reflects my original suspicions in that somehow, in trying to
manipulate the path string the value isn't being piped through.

You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At C:\Powershell\script.ps1:2 char:210
+ $Dir = get-childitem $Path -recurse | where {$_.extension -eq ".swf"} |
where{$_.Name -notlike "button*"} | move-item -destination (join-path -path
'D:\File_server\Flash_Items' -childpath $_.FullName.Substring <<<< (17))

Apologies for my lack of experience with this but would like to get this
working.

Thank you again

Finished script

Hello All,



I wanted to update in case anyone else had the same issue with the move-item and join-path.  In the end the problem wasn't the join-path method but the fact that the move-item does not create the folders required for the folder structure to be maintained.  A seperate new-item method has to called, again amending the path with a join-path cmdlet to point to the new location.



Here is the final working script and hope it helps others:



$Path = "C:\A\"

$List = get-childitem -path $Path -recurse *.swf | where{$_.Name -notlike "button*"}



foreach($file in $list){



$MovePath = (join-path -path 'C:\B\' -childpath $file.FullName.SubString(4))



$MoveDirectory = (join-path -path 'C:\B\' -childpath $file.DirectoryName.SubString(4))



new-item $MoveDirectory -type directory -ea SilentlyContinue

move-item -Path $file.FullName -destination $MovePath



}