CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellget-childitem
skinnedknuckles
skinnedknuckles

Reputation: 411

Using the -Depth property of the Get-ChildItem Powershell cmdlet

I'm trying to use the -Depth parameter of the Get-Children cmdlet to find the shallower (less deep) of 2 files having the same name as shown below.

C:\temp\test.txt
C:\temp\Logs\test.txt

Many posts suggest defining -Path as "C:\temp\" or "C:\temp\\*". But in my case I prefer to use the -Depth Parameter to limit the depth of recursions in the search. I've read that it implies recursion and thus need not be used in conjunction with recurse. So far I've tried all the commands below but they all return the same results shown further down.

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth 0 -Include tes*.txt | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth 1 -Include tes*.txt | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth 2 -Include tes*.txt | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth 3 -Include tes*.txt | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth '1' -Include tes*.txt | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth "1" -Include tes*.txt | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth $d -Include tes*.txt | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth $d -Include tes*.txt -Recurse | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth 0 -Include tes*.txt -Recurse | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth 0 -Include tes*.txt -Recurse | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth 2 -Include tes*.txt -Recurse | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Depth 3 -Include tes*.txt -Recurse | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Include tes*.txt -Depth 1 | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -Include tes*.txt -Depth 0 | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -File -Include tes*.txt -Depth 0 | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -File -Include tes*.txt -Depth 1 | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp -File -Include tes*.txt -Depth 2 | Format-List -Property FullName
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp\* -Include tes*.txt -Recurse | Format-List -Property FullName

ALL of the commands above yield the same result, namely

FullName : C:\temp\Logs\test.txt
FullName : C:\temp\test.txt

Aside from the -Depth property, using the "\*" as many suggest enables me to isolate the deeper file but not the shallower file. Am I missing something?

PS C:\>  Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp\* -Include tes*.txt -Recurse | Format-List -Property FullName

FullName : C:\temp\Logs\test.txt
FullName : C:\temp\test.txt

PS C:\>  Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp\*\* -Include tes*.txt -Recurse | Format-List -Property FullName

FullName : C:\temp\Logs\test.txt

PS C:\>  Get-ChildItem -Path C:\temp\*\*\* -Include tes*.txt -Recurse | Format-List -Property FullName

PS C:\>

Upvotes: 3

Views: 5369

Answers (2)

big J88
big J88

Reputation: 21

When using -include as a filter, -depth seems to be ignored (bug?) .

-include can be used to match multiple criteria. Better use -filter if you have only one criteria and you want to limit search depth, or do multiple searches with single criteria.

Upvotes: 1

user6811411
user6811411

Reputation:

The usage of -Depth seems to exclude the usage of -Include or
even a wildcard in the -Path parameter.

Let -Filter do the work, in this sample tree:

> tree /F
C:.
└───temp
    │   Test.txt
    │
    └───0
        │   Test.txt
        │
        └───1
            │   Test.txt
            │
            └───2
                    Test.txt

This one liner:

 0..4|%{"-Depth $_ ---------------";(Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Temp\ -Depth $_ -Filter Tes*.txt).FullName}

returns:

-Depth 0 ---------------
C:\Temp\Test.txt
-Depth 1 ---------------
C:\Temp\Test.txt
C:\Temp\0\Test.txt
-Depth 2 ---------------
C:\Temp\Test.txt
C:\Temp\0\Test.txt
C:\Temp\0\1\Test.txt
-Depth 3 ---------------
C:\Temp\Test.txt
C:\Temp\0\Test.txt
C:\Temp\0\1\Test.txt
C:\Temp\0\1\2\Test.txt
-Depth 4 ---------------
C:\Temp\Test.txt
C:\Temp\0\Test.txt
C:\Temp\0\1\Test.txt
C:\Temp\0\1\2\Test.txt

Upvotes: 5

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