The dir command allows you to see the available Files & Folders in a directory. The same command is available in Powershell to see all available Files and Folders in a Directory but the difference here is Powershell treats each file and folder as an Object. Reason being PS is based on .NET managed APIs, if .NET has certain Methods, Functions and Properties for a specified file it will also be treated as an Object.
In Powershell, there are two more cmdlet (command-let) equivalent to DIR viz.,
- Get-ChildItem or gci (alias)
- ls (LS) Yes, it has the support for Unix Command)
Get-ChildItem
Infact if we compare both the commands DIR \ Get-ChildItem in DOS and PS environment respecitvely, get-childitem is more powerful. you can add multiple filters while retreiving the result. Apart from this Force, recurse and exclude are few key switches to it which makes it my favourite.
Example 1: Get-ChildItem
This will list down all the files and folders of the current location.
PS C:\Program Files> Get-ChildItem
Directory: C:\Program Files
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
—- ————- —— —-
d—- 25-12-2010 14:14:54 Alwil Software
d—- 24-12-2010 23:56:48 Common Files
d—- 08-04-2010 04:55:11 CONEXANT
d—- 08-04-2010 05:39:38 DIFX
d—- 29-07-2009 12:53:50 DVD Maker
d—- 08-04-2010 04:50:33 Elantech
d—- 19-08-2010 09:02:40 Google
d—- 24-04-2011 12:12:53 Internet Explorer
d—- 08-04-2010 05:37:35 Lenovo
d—- 04-12-2010 21:25:38 MBlaze UI
d—- 03-06-2011 23:55:02 Microsoft Analysis Services
d—- 29-07-2009 12:53:50 Microsoft Games
d—- 08-04-2010 05:12:24 Microsoft Office
d—- 04-06-2011 00:00:16 Microsoft SQL Server
…………
Example 2: Get-ChildItem m*
This command will list down all sub-directories where the name starts with M.
PS C:\Program Files> Get-ChildItem m*
Directory: C:\Program Files
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
—- ————- —— —-
d—- 04-12-2010 21:25:38 MBlaze UI
d—- 03-06-2011 23:55:02 Microsoft Analysis Services
d—- 29-07-2009 12:53:50 Microsoft Games
d—- 08-04-2010 05:12:24 Microsoft Office
d—- 04-06-2011 00:00:16 Microsoft SQL Server
d—- 03-06-2011 23:46:11 Microsoft Sync Framework
d—- 03-06-2011 23:53:37 Microsoft.NET
d—- 14-07-2009 11:02:38 MSBuild
Example 3: Get-ChildItem .\digicam-2-oct-2010\* -Include *2.jpg -exclude *4*.jpg
This command will pick the files from .\digicam-2-oct-2010\* location where the file name is ending with 2.JPG but it also exclude the files where a digit 4 is there in the entire number irrespective of the location. This brings in the power of Wildcard characters.
PS C:\> gci .\digicam-2-oct-2010\* -Include *2.jpg -exclude *4*.jpg
Directory: C:\digicam-2-oct-2010
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
—- ————- —— —-
-a— 03-10-2010 00:07:36 4465311 DSC00192.JPG
-a— 03-10-2010 00:44:06 4503679 DSC00202.JPG
-a— 03-10-2010 15:15:38 4492951 DSC00212.JPG
-a— 03-10-2010 16:55:00 4502058 DSC00222.JPG
-a— 03-10-2010 17:03:12 4433692 DSC00232.JPG
-a— 03-10-2010 18:01:30 4373476 DSC00252.JPG
Moreover, if you want you can easily get the list of all files & folders in multiple sub-directories that too with a single command in one shot.
eNjoy
Regards
Sarabpreet Anand
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