Powershell to replace text in multiple files stored in many folders

Question

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?

possible duplicate of [PowerShell Script to Find and Replace for all Files with a Specific Extension](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2837785/powershell-script-to-find-and-replace-for-all-files-with-a-specific-extension) — AncientSwordRage, Sep 26 '15 at 10:45

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 04 '14 at 17:14

18

$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
}

answered Feb 04 '14 at 17:14

Loïc MICHEL

24,935
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103

Note: this seems to set the content of all files, i.e. image files will be opened as text and re-saved. I added an additional check before modifying files – Kieren Johnstone Mar 01 '17 at 10:13
The text "THIS" can contain a regular expression as well. So, if you want to replace a literal string "THIS+" with "THAT+" then you need to escape the + in the source string. E.g. "THIS\+","THAT+" – Amit Tendulkar Dec 07 '22 at 09:19

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 04 '14 at 17:21

11

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 $_) }

answered Feb 04 '14 at 17:21

Maxime Labelle

3,609
2
27
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1

Nice. Thanks for the showing both the long and shorthand. – zomf Aug 02 '16 at 18:38

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 04 '14 at 17:15

6

$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
}

answered Feb 04 '14 at 17:15

mjolinor

66,130
7
114
135

How would I count the number of files changed and/or number of changes made? – N-ate Nov 21 '17 at 17:13

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 06 '20 at 23:29

0

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

answered Oct 06 '20 at 23:29

David Morrow

262
4
9

$filenames = Get-ChildItem|Select-String -Pattern ""|select Filename – David Morrow Oct 06 '20 at 23:31

Powershell to replace text in multiple files stored in many folders

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