How to exclude list of items from Get-ChildItem result in powershell?

Question

I want to get list of files (actually number of files) in a path, recursively, excluding certain types:

Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Recurse | ? { $_.Name -notlike "*.cs" -and $_.Name -notlike "*.tt" }

but I have a long list of exclusions (to name a few):

@("*.cs", "*.tt", "*.xaml", "*.csproj", "*.sln", "*.xml", "*.cmd", "*.txt")

How to get the list using this form:

Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Recurse | ? { <# what to put here ?#> }

?

js2010 · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-02T17:41:53.563

65

This works too:

get-childitem $path -recurse -exclude *.cs,*.tt,*.xaml,*.csproj,
  *.sln,*.xml,*.cmd,*.txt

Note that -include only works with -recurse or a wildcard in the path. (actually it works all the time in 6.1 pre 2)

Also note that using both -exclude and -filter will not list anything, without -recurse or a wildcard in the path.

-include and -literalpath also seem problematic in PS 5.

There's also a bug with -include and -exclude with the path at the root "", that displays nothing. In unix it gives an error.

Excluding a directory like "foo3" (not the full path) is challenging. It doesn't seem to work with -recurse or -filter. You can pipe to a 2nd get-childitem.

get-childitem -exclude foo3 | get-childitem -recurse -filter file*

edited Nov 02 '22 at 17:41

answered Nov 28 '16 at 17:18

js2010

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@pinepain, I think it's simpler, one-liner, less verbose, thus differentiated from (previously) accepted answer. – Tar Nov 29 '16 at 19:20
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Thanks for noting this: "Also note that using both -exclude and -filter will not list anything, without -recurse or a wildcard in the path." But can you explain why it is like that? I had issues in my code because of that behavior and I only figured that out by finding your post. – Ravior Aug 21 '20 at 07:06
@Ravior I don't know, but I believe it's fixed in powershell 7. – js2010 Aug 21 '20 at 12:47

score 38 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 06 '13 at 11:02

38

You can supply exclusions to Get-ChildItem with the -exclude parameter:

$excluded = @("*.cs", "*.tt", "*.xaml", "*.csproj", "*.sln", "*.xml", "*.cmd", "*.txt")
get-childitem -path $path -recurse -exclude $excluded

answered Oct 06 '13 at 11:02

Lee

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Thanks. The insight here is to be able to pass an array to -exclude – sdjuan Sep 20 '16 at 14:23

score 12 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 24 '15 at 20:07

Here is how you would do it using a Where-Object cmdlet:

$exclude = @(".cs", ".tt", ".xaml", ".csproj", ".sln", ".xml", ".cmd", ".txt")
Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Recurse | Where-Object { $exclude -notcontains $_.Extension }

If you do not want directories to be returned in the results as well, then use this:

$exclude = @(".cs", ".tt", ".xaml", ".csproj", ".sln", ".xml", ".cmd", ".txt")
Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Recurse | Where-Object { (-not $_.PSIsContainer) -and ($exclude -notcontains $_.Extension) }

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 17 '17 at 07:52

4

Set-Location C:\

$ExcludedcDirectory = "Windows|Program|Visual|Trend|NVidia|inet"
$SearchThis = Get-ChildItem -Directory | where Name -NotMatch $ExcludedcDirectory

$OutlookFiles = foreach ($myDir in $SearchThis) {    
    $Fn = Split-Path $myDir.fullname
    $mypath = "Get-ChildItem -Path $Fn\*.pst, *.ost -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue" 

     Invoke-Expression "$mypath"
}
$OutlookFiles.FullName

answered Aug 17 '17 at 07:52

Jayrich

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Please explain your solution. – BBaysinger May 26 '21 at 22:06

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 25 '20 at 14:05

2

You can do it like this using Where-Object:

Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.Extension -notin @("*.cs", "*.tt", "*.xaml", "*.csproj", "*.sln", "*.xml", "*.cmd", "*.txt")}

answered Feb 25 '20 at 14:05

Wasif

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 04 '23 at 04:06

0

Compare dll files of two directories, $src_dir and $dest_dir, and list files not existing in $src

Get-ChildItem (Join-Path $src_dir "*.dll") -Exclude (Get-ChildItem (Join-Path $dest_dir "*.dll") -File | %{$_.Name})

answered Apr 04 '23 at 04:06

Supawat Pusavanno

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How to exclude list of items from Get-ChildItem result in powershell?

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