Combine text from multiple files into a single file

Question

I'm trying to create a text file that contains the content of my source code files concatenated. I've came up with the following concise code:

Get-ChildItem  -Recurse MySourcePath -Include "*.htm", "*.cs" | Foreach-Object 
{Get-Content $_.FullName | Add-Content MyFile.txt}

The problem is, after multiple files (hundreds or thousands), I'm starting to get the following error:

Add-Content : The process cannot access the file 'MyFile.txt' because it is being used by another process.

It seems like concurrency issue and I thought it was related to the pipelining mechanism, but using foreach didn't solve the problem.

What is the right way in PowerShell to protect my file from multiple writes? Is there a way to still utilize the pipeline?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

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As explained here, your problem is add-content, just do it

Get-ChildItem $MySourcePath -Recurse -Include "*.htm", "*.cs" | get-content |  Out-File -Append MyFile.txt



#short version
gci -file $MySourcePath -Recurse -Include "*.htm", "*.cs" | gc >>  MyFile2.txt

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

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answered Apr 08 '17 at 09:54

Esperento57

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It did the trick! I couldn't imagine it could get shorter (and better)... What is your personal preference? use the full cmdlet names or the shortcuts? – Amittai Shapira Apr 09 '17 at 01:08
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i prefert use cmdletname, better lisibility ;) – Esperento57 Apr 09 '17 at 02:47

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 07 '17 at 21:51

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You can pipe Get-ChildItem to Out-File to combine the files, it's only a single write operation then:

Get-ChildItem MySourcePath -Include "*.htm", "*.cs" -Recurse | Out-File MyFile.txt

answered Apr 07 '17 at 21:51

henrycarteruk

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I've tried that but it just creates a text file with all file names. I need all files content (i.e. the source code) to be concatenated into single file. You also haven't answered my question regarding what is the issue with what I've initially tried... – Amittai Shapira Apr 08 '17 at 01:16

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 28 '19 at 20:16

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I know this is an old thread, but I found the following: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/rob/2012/11/21/combining-files-in-powershell/

The line that actually combines the contents of all htm files into a single MyFile.txt, looks something like this:

Get-ChildItem -recurse -include "*.htm" | % { Get-Content $_ -ReadCount 0 | Add-Content MyFile.txt }

edited Aug 28 '19 at 20:16

Studocwho

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answered Aug 28 '19 at 18:01

Randy

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Combine text from multiple files into a single file

3 Answers3