CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
Rob Berry
Rob Berry

Reputation: 315

Powershell test-path then remove-item but file in use by another process

I'm using Powershell for some file manipulation and performing the following steps:

  1. Copy a file from one location to another (copy-item)
  2. Verify that the new file is where it's expected (test-path)
  3. If verified in the new location, remove the original (remove-item)

This process works 99.9% of the time but sometimes I'm receiving an error when the remove-item step occurs informing me that the original file is already in use / locked. I can only assume that the process using this is the copy-item / test-path from steps 1 or 2.

Do I need to instruct Powershell to wait until the copy-item / test-path are finished before proceeding with the remove-item? Or is it more likely that there is another process running somewhere else such as on access AV that is causing this problem? If so, is there a method of easily retrying in the event of a file lock being in place?

Here is part of the code that performs the steps mentioned:

if ($copySuccess = "TRUE") {
    $wiFiles = Get-ChildItem $xmlDir -Filter $itemNum*.*
    $wiFiles | ForEach-Object {
        if ($copySuccess -eq "TRUE") {
            Copy-Item -LiteralPath $xmlDir\$_ -Destination $processedDir
                if (!(Test-Path -LiteralPath $processedDir\$_)) {
                    $copySuccess = "FALSE"
                }
            } 
        }
    }                    
    if ($copySuccess -eq "TRUE") {
        Get-ChildItem $xmlDir -Filter $itemNum*.* | Remove-Item
    }

The files being moved are small text files or image files <1MB and typically <10 files per itemNum.

Thanks, Rob.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 9015

Answers (1)

Flash_Steel
Flash_Steel

Reputation: 628

It is very unlikely that your cmdlets are causing the problem. if you want to make sure each cmdlet finishes before the next starts wrap each command in 

$job1 = Start-Job { [Powershell code] }
Wait-Job $job1

For the delete command you could try something along the lines of

While ( Test-Path($yourFileDir) ){
    Try{
        remove-item [your item] -ErrorAction Stop
    }catch{
        Write-Verbose "File locked, trying again in 5"
        Start-Sleep -seconds 5
    }
}

Of course, you can tidy this up to fit your needs, adding an appropriate time out etc.

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions