rename-item and override if filename exists

Question

I am trying to use the Rename-Item cmdlet to do the following:

I have folder which contains "*.txt" files. Let's say 1.txt, 2.txt etc...

I want to copy files that have some prefix, rename them to *.txt and override any existing files if there are any.

example:

folder: c:\TEST

files : 1.txt, 2.txt, 3.txt, 4.txt, 5.txt, index.1.txt, index.2.txt, index.3.txt, index.4.txt, index.5.txt

I want to use rename-item to filter any index.*.txt and rename them to *.txt, and if the same file exists, replace it.

Thank you guys

@PeterSchneider Force wont work in that way with `Rename-Item` as you would still get `Cannot create a file when that file already exists.` — Matt, Aug 31 '15 at 13:13
You might use [System.IO.File]::Copy($sourcefile,$targetfile,$true); - The $true overwrites the existing file... — Peter Schneider, Aug 31 '15 at 13:19
Are you just asking about the rename process or the logic to determine the new name? — Matt, Aug 31 '15 at 13:23
Ive tried the -Force. I just need to know whether there is an option to rename file from A to B, and if B exists, override it with the newly renamed A to B. — Ilya Gurenko, Aug 31 '15 at 14:46

score 57 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 31 '15 at 15:15

57

As noted by @lytledw, Move-Item -Force works great for renaming and overwriting files.

To replace the index. part of the name, you can use the -replace regex operator:

Get-ChildItem index.*.txt |ForEach-Object {
    $NewName = $_.Name -replace "^(index\.)(.*)",'$2'
    $Destination = Join-Path -Path $_.Directory.FullName -ChildPath $NewName
    Move-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $Destination -Force
}

answered Aug 31 '15 at 15:15

Mathias R. Jessen

157,619
12
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With slight modifications the "Move-Item" did the trick! Cheers ! – Ilya Gurenko Aug 31 '15 at 16:18
I wanted to rename thousands of duplicate files that resulted from migrating my music library to a new PC from multiple backup locations, one of which automatically appended a date stamp to the filenames. I used this answer with some modifications, viz.: ` C:\Users\reyje\music\itunes\itunes media\music> Get-ChildItem "*(2017_12_14*.*" -recurse |ForEach-Object { >> $NewName = $_.Name -replace " $2017_12_14 17_50_59 UTC$",'' >> $Destination = Join-Path -Path $_.Directory.FullName -ChildPath $NewName >> Move-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $Destination -Force >> }` – PatentWookiee Dec 31 '17 at 21:23
The idea was to replace the literal string " (2017_12_14 17_50_59 UTC)" with nothing--the '' are two single quotation marks with nothing between them. This worked for the vast majority of the files, but for each file with square brackets in its name or path, I got errors like this: Move-Item : Cannot retrieve the dynamic parameters for the cmdlet. The specified wildcard character pattern is not valid: 09 09 Old Purple Tin [9% of Pure Hea (2017_12_14 17_50_59 UTC).m4a At line:4 char:7 + Move-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination $Destination -Force + – PatentWookiee Dec 31 '17 at 21:25
It seems counter-intuitive to me that characters inside a file name that is not typed would not be treated as literal string characters. – PatentWookiee Dec 31 '17 at 21:34

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 31 '15 at 13:19

15

I tried the rename-item -force and it did not work. However, I was able to do move-item -force and it worked fine

answered Aug 31 '15 at 13:19

lytledw

161
3

The op is asking more than one question but that is the solution for the first one. – Matt Aug 31 '15 at 13:22

rename-item and override if filename exists

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