How to delete all folders with a specific name using powershell

Question

I have got a folder from where I have to delete all the subfolders having name like "tempspecssuite_"

My folder structure is like below

Folder1
- src
- target
- tempspecssuite_0
- tempspecssuite_1

I want recursively delete the folders with name like tempspecssuite_

I tried using below command but it didn't work

Get-Childitem -path C:\folder1 -Recurse | where-object {$_.Name -ilike "*tempspecssuite_*"} | Remove-Item -Force -WhatIf

thanks Itchydon.. there was a typo in my question, but the problem was I didn't remove the Whatif — DevX
– DevX, Commented Jan 6, 2021 at 15:12

RoadRunner · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-06 14:57:47Z

5

Pipeline objects need to be referenced with $_, not $, as shown below:

Get-Childitem -Path C:\folder1 -Recurse | Where-Object {$_.Name -ilike "*tempspecssuite*"} | Remove-Item -Force -WhatIf

Which can also be referenced with $PSItem or set to a custom variable with the -PipelineVariable common parameter. You can find out more in about_pipelines,about_objects and about_automatic_variables.

You could also simplify the above by making use of the -Filter parameter from Get-ChildItem, which also accepts wildcards:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\folder1 -Directory -Filter tempspecssuite_* -Recurse | Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -WhatIf

Which allows Get-ChildItem to filter files while they are getting retrieved, rather than filtering with Where-Object afterwards.

You can also limit the filtering with the -Directory switch, since we only care about deleting directories.

answered Jan 6, 2021 at 14:57

RoadRunner

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2 Comments

DevX Over a year ago

Thanks road runner! it is identifying the directories now but it is not deleting the folders. Could there be anything I am missing

RoadRunner Over a year ago

@DevX Are you still using -WhatIf? That will only tell you the effect of the command, but not actually delete. Remove this parameter to perform real deletion.

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