Powershell: Move file from one directory to another, based on string within file

Question

Looking around the site and can't seem to find some answers for myself.

I'm looking to write a script, that will enable me to move files from one destination to another, based on the contents within the file.

To get into Specifics

Source Destination - V:\SW\FromSite Copy to Destination - V:\SW\ToSW FileType - .txt String - test

Ideally I'd also like to ONLY have the script search files that begin with 7. These are unique identifiers to a region.

Pulling my hair out a bit trying.

I was using the below, which runs without error, but does nothing.

$DestDir = "V:\SW\FromSite"
$SrcDir = "V:\SW\ToSW"
$SearchString = "test"

gci $SrcDir -filter 7*.txt | select-string $SearchString | select path | 
move-item -dest $DestDir -whatif

Edward Barton · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-12 16:56:08Z

2

Here's what I would do, though I'm sure there's a more streamlined way to do it.

$files = gci $SrcDir -filter 7*.txt
$files | %{
    if ((select-string -path $_.FullName -pattern $SearchString) -ne $null) {
        move-item -path $_.FullName -dest $DestDir
    }
}

answered Jun 12, 2017 at 16:56

Edward Barton

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2 Comments

Daniel Over a year ago

So put together the below, its running, but nothing seems to happen? (Sorry for formatting, this site wrecks my head when responding to comments, where return saves the comment instead of starting a new line $DestDir = "V:\SW\FromSite" $SrcDir = "V:\SW\ToSW" $SearchString = "test" $files = gci $SrcDir -filter 7*.txt $files | %{ if ((select-string -path $_.FullName -pattern $SearchString) -ne $null) { move-item -path $_.FullName -dest $DestDir } }

Edward Barton Over a year ago

Try adding some more output. Perhaps write-host the $files, to make sure your filter is working, and maybe add a write-host line inside the IF statement.

Daniel · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-15 10:42:09Z

1

So did some more messing around and the below is working perfectly for what I need

get-childitem "<SourceFolder>" -filter 7*.txt -
recurse | select-string -list -pattern "test" | move -dest "<DestinationFolder>"

Thanks all for the help

answered Jun 15, 2017 at 10:42

Daniel

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Comments

Stefan · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-13 09:17:10Z

0

Not sure if I missed something (didn't tried it on my machine) - but as long as you pass the -whatif option, move-item "shows what would happen if the cmdlet runs. The cmdlet is not run."; see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/move-item.

So probably it would have been sufficient to just remove the -whatif from the initial statement.

answered Aug 13, 2021 at 9:17

Stefan

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