CODEWITHSUNDEEP
filepowershellreplacedirectory
aston_zh
aston_zh

Reputation: 6833

Powershell to replace text in multiple files stored in many folders

I want to replace a text in multiple files and folders. The folder name changes, but the filename is always config.xml.

$fileName = Get-ChildItem "C:\config\app*\config.xml" -Recurse
(Get-Content $fileName) -replace 'this', 'that' | Set-Content $fileName

When I run the above script it works, but it writes the whole text in config.xml about 20 times. What's wrong?

Upvotes: 18

Views: 32142

Answers (4)

David Morrow
David Morrow

Reputation: 294

I got list of files to replace text this way.

$filenames = Get-ChildItem|Select-String -Pattern ""|select Filename

This gets 12 files.

To replace this text in all files

foreach ($filename in $filesnames){ (Get-Content $filename.Filename) -replace "", ""|Set-Content $filename.Filename }

Don't forget last part for Filename. $filename.Filename

Upvotes: 0

Maxime Labelle
Maxime Labelle

Reputation: 3639

In general, you should use the pipeline and combine the ForEach-Object and/or Where-Object CmdLets.

In your case, this would like like something more akin to:

Get-ChildItem "C:\config\app*\config.xml" -Recurse | ForEach-Object -Process {
    (Get-Content $_) -Replace 'this', 'that' | Set-Content $_
}

Which can be shortened somewhat to:

dir "C:\config\app*\config.xml" -recurse |% { (gc $_) -replace 'this', 'that' | (sc $_) }

Upvotes: 12

mjolinor
mjolinor

Reputation: 68243

$filename is an array of filenames, and it's trying to do them all at once. Try doing them one at a time:

$fileNames = Get-ChildItem "C:\config\app*\config.xml" -Recurse |
 select -expand fullname

foreach ($filename in $filenames) 
{
  (  Get-Content $fileName) -replace 'this', 'that' | Set-Content $fileName
}

Upvotes: 6

Loïc MICHEL
Loïc MICHEL

Reputation: 26120

$filename is a collection of System.IO.FileInfo objects. You have to loop to get the content for each file : this should do what you want :

$filename | %{
    (gc $_) -replace "THIS","THAT" |Set-Content $_.fullname
}

Upvotes: 18

Related Questions