Powershell script to delete files not specified in a list

Mrchief picture Mrchief · Jan 6, 2010 · Viewed 11.8k times · Source

I have a list of filenames in a text file like this:

f1.txt
f2
f3.jpg

How do I delete everything else from a folder except these files in Powershell?

Pseudo-code:

  • Read the text file line-by-line
  • Create a list of filenames
  • Recurse folder and its subfolders
  • If filename is not in list, delete it.

Answer

x0n picture x0n · Jan 6, 2010

Data:

-- begin exclusions.txt --
a.txt
b.txt
c.txt
-- end --

Code:

# read all exclusions into a string array
$exclusions = Get-Content .\exclusions.txt

dir -rec *.* | Where-Object {
   $exclusions -notcontains $_.name } | `
   Remove-Item -WhatIf

Remove the -WhatIf switch if you are happy with your results. -WhatIf shows you what it would do (i.e. it will not delete)

-Oisin