My powershell script:
$dst = 'C:\Temp'
#Get all folders in $dst
$folders = Get-ChildItem $dst | ?{ $_.PSIsContainer }
foreach($folder in $folders)
{
$cnt = (Get-ChildItem -filter *.txt $folder | Measure-Object).Count
$base = ($folder.FullName -split " \[.*\]$")[0]
$newname = $("{0} [{1}]" -f $base,$cnt)
Write-Host $folder.FullName "->" $newname
Rename-Item $folder.FullName $newname
}
The problem
On my first run I get this:
PS C:\Temp> C:\Temp\RenameFolders.ps1
C:\Temp\m1 -> C:\Temp\m1 [1]
On my second run I get this:
PS C:\Temp> C:\Temp\RenameFolders.ps1
C:\Temp\m1 [1] -> C:\Temp\m1 [0]
Rename-Item : Cannot rename because item at 'C:\Temp\m1 [1]' does not exist.
At C:\Temp\RenameFolders.ps1:15 char:5
+ Rename-Item $folder.FullName $newname
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Rename-Item], PSInvalidOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
I know that the problem is in '[' and ']', but I realy can't understand why.
Can someone explain me why is that a problem?
If you are running PS 3+ add -LiteralPath switch to your rename:
Rename-Item -LiteralPath $folder.FullName $newname
otherwise use Move-Item
Move-Item -LiteralPath $folder.FullName $newname
Powershell doesn't like square brackets in filenames, more in the following post:
This became an issue with V2 when they added the square brackets to the wildcard character set to support "blobbing".
From get-help about_wildcards
:
Windows PowerShell supports the following wildcard characters.
Wildcard Description Example Match No match
Matches zero or a* A, ag, Apple banana more characters
? Matches exactly ?n an, in, on ran one character in the specified position
[ ] Matches a range [a-l]ook book, cook, look took of characters
[ ] Matches specified [bc]ook book, cook hook characters
[
and ]
are special characters.