从全名获取目录，重命名目录

Question

i want to find all files with more than 256 characters in fullname.

From these files i want to rename the folder.

At the morment i'm at this point

    $maxLength = 260
    $newPath = "a_path"

$paths = Get-ChildItem $newPath -force -Recurse | 
    Where-Object { ($_.FullName.Length -gt $maxLength) } |
    % {
     Write-Host $_.FullName
}

But now I'm lost.

1. I can't understand why the command write-host $paths doesn't work anymore.

2. From the fullname I only need the directory, i tried to get it with

   select Directory or Splith-Path

But this also doesn't work.

3. How can I say to "trim" the directory name to $maxLength = 260

Thank's for a few hints!

CYA_D0c

Answer 1

1. I can't understand why the command write-host $paths doesn't work anymore.

Replace the Write-Host cmdlet by Select-Object :

$maxLength = 260
$newPath = "a_path"
$paths = Get-ChildItem $newPath -Force -Recurse | Where-Object {$_.FullName.Length -gt $maxLength} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FullName

$paths will then be a list of your desired full paths.

2. From the fullname I only need the directory, i tried to get it with select Directory or Splith-Path . But this also doesn't work.

Splith-Path will do it:

$paths | Split-Path -Parent

3. How can I say to "trim" the directory name to $maxLength = 260

That's not that easy as you might think. To what name do you want to trim it? What if the trimmed name of a directory already exists?

Of course you can rename a directory at any time, but you need a certain naming convention if you want to trim directory names to a certain length automatically.

What's your original problem? Are you still using Windows 7 or old MS Office products that are limitted to a maximum path length of 256?

Answer 2

Write-Host is only for sending text characters to your terminal, be it the PowerShell Prompt or something else, and you can't catch it in a variable like you're trying to do.

We can simplify your code to this, to get only those paths longer than 260.

$paths = Get-ChildItem $newPath -force -Recurse | 
    Where-Object { ($_.FullName.Length -gt $maxLength) } | Select-Object -Expand Fullname   

Which should give you just a listing of the directories which are too long, stored inside of $paths . You could export it to a csv file like so:

$paths | Export-Csv C:\PathTo\MyCooL.csv

And it is at this point that you should pause and decide how to proceed.

This sort of process is often attempted and we have, as a hive-mind, determined that it is not an ideal candidate for automation. Instead, a person should review the list and then intelligently make the right decision to rename the directories.

Why? It would be very easy to break some apps if your renaming script ran amuk in C:\ProgramData\ , for instance. On looking at the list, you might find deeply nested installs containing Visual C++ Redistributables, or other important content. You'll need to make the right call on how to rename it, to do so safely.