PowerShell recursive search and file copy

Question

I am working on a PowerShell script for PowerShell v3 on a Server 2012 R2 system to recursively search the specified folders in the source path and copy wav files less than 5 minutes old to a destination directory.

In this sample code I would need \\source\path\folder1 and \\source\path\folder2 to be searched for wav files and then have them copied into the root destination directory \\destination\path

I was attempting to setup a scheduled task to run this every 5 minutes thus the reason for trying to use {$_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5)} without success. Any other suggestions on how to prevent duplicate copies would be great.

I then would like the script to append to a log file of files copied for future reference with a log filed named the current date.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

$Dst = '\\destination\path'
$Src = '\\source\path'
$LogFolder = "\\log\path"
$FolderName = "folder1","folder2"
$FileType = '*.wav'

Get-ChildItem -Path $Src -Filter $FolderName -Recurse -Force |
        Where-Object {$_.PSIsContainer} |
        Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5)} |
                ForEach-Object {
                    Copy-Item -Path (Join-Path -Path $_.FullName -ChildPath '\*') -Filter $FileType -Destination $Dst -Force | Out-File $LogFolder $(get-date -f MM-dd-YYYY) + .log
                }

Gareth Lyons · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-02 19:36:00Z

1

You can add a test-path check before copying to prevent grabbing the same file twice. Would CreationTime be a better check than LastWriteTime?

$Dst = '\\destination\path'
$Src = '\\source\path'
$LogFolder = "\\log\path"
$FolderName = "folder1","folder2"
$FileType = '*.wav'

Get-ChildItem -Path $Src -Filter $FolderName -Recurse -Force |
        Where-Object {$_.PSIsContainer} |
        Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5)} |
                ForEach-Object {
                                if (Test-Path "$Dst\$_.FullName" -eq 0)
                                       {
                                       Copy-Item -Path (Join-Path -Path $_.FullName -ChildPath '\*') -Filter $FileType -Destination $Dst -Force | Out-File $LogFolder $(get-date -f MM-dd-YYYY) + .log
                                       }
                               }

answered Feb 2, 2017 at 19:36

Gareth Lyons

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1 Comment

Jeff .Floyd Over a year ago

For my purpose that would not work as the wav file that is being copied to that directory will be moved again to an archive folder once the file has been matched to an XML and uploaded to a dictation service. Using CreationTime is a good idea as the wav files will not be edited once it is created.

FoxDeploy · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-02 19:41:21Z

0

The reason this code isn't doing anything is that you're filtering on the second line, here:

Where-Object {$_.PSIsContainer}

You're filtering just for directories, not only for files. Since you don't later in the code recurse through the folders, that's why nothing is happening.

I would remove that statement, and specify -Include *.wav on your initial Get-ChildItem cmd.

answered Feb 2, 2017 at 19:41

FoxDeploy

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1 Comment

Jeff .Floyd Over a year ago

the reason for the 'Where-Object {$_.PSIsContainer}' line was to only recusively search "folder1" & "folder2" noted above. Did I not create the Array $FolderName to do this?

Florian p.i. · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-02 20:42:59Z

0

As FoxDeploy mentioned and a short test confirmed, this isn't the problem:

{$_.LastWriteTime -gt (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-5)}

I advise you to better use multiple paths instead of filtering the folder names, so that you can try the follwing to get your waves:

Get-ChildItem -Path $paths -Filter "*.wav" -File -Recurse -Force

And im a bit wondering why $Src = '\source\path' doesn't start with a dot. In my case, all trials to get along without failed.

I guess you want to append context to your log file, so add: -noclubber -append to Outfile.

answered Feb 2, 2017 at 20:42

Florian p.i.

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