CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
Mitul
Mitul

Reputation: 9854

Why two similar PowerShell copy-Item commands behave differently

I have two very similar one line commands but one works and one doesn't with variables. 

Copy-Item "C:\BadSourceCodes\dropTest\base1\*" -Include "myUsers.Config","myUsers.WSF" -Destination "C:\BadSourceCodes\dropTest\temp1"

This just works I have two files and I want them to be copied over to destination folder.

If I create something like this

$files = "myUsers.Config,myUsers.WSF"

$tempFiles = [string]::Concat("`"",$files.Replace(",","`",`""),"`"")
$tempFiles
Copy-Item "C:\BadSourceCodes\dropTest\base1\*" -Include $tempFiles -Destination "C:\BadSourceCodes\dropTest\temp1" -Force

As soon as I use a variable for Include files it doesn't work. I have checked with different variations and it doesn't work.

Is the $ variable behaves differently?

I tried following variations like $($tempFiles), '$tempFiles', "$tempFiles".....

UPDATE: I think when I am escaping the quotes and replacing , with "," then it treats quote as a part of the string. Some how it was the bad approach I took. But what worked is just $files.Split(",") which creates an array of string and Done.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 757

Answers (1)

zdan
zdan

Reputation: 29460

The -Include argument wants an array of strings, not a list of names in a single string. Put the names in an actual array and it should work:

#create an array of strings
$files = "myUsers.Config","myUsers.WSF"

Copy-Item "C:\BadSourceCodes\dropTest\base1\*" -Include $files -Destination "C:\BadSourceCodes\dropTest\temp1" -Force

Upvotes: 3

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