PowerShell Remove-Item silently doesn't remove a single file

Question

I have mixed together a PowerShell script that browses folders recursively searching for too low resolution pictures.

I have googled for a solution for couple of hours and so far I haven't managed to get those images deleted. So what's the deal with this?

Turns out that square brackets in file names were causing problems. But now Remove-Item complains that the files are used by another process, which I assume is this script itself.

$kuveja = 0
$pikkusii = 0
[void][reflection.assembly]::loadwithpartialname("system.drawing")

function Get-Image{
process {
        $file = $_
        [Drawing.Image]::FromFile($_.FullName)  |
        ForEach-Object{
            $_ | Add-Member -PassThru NoteProperty FullName ('{0}' -f $file.FullName)
        }
    }
}

$path = 'H:\Juttui\'
Get-ChildItem $path\* -Include *.jpg, *.jpeg* -Recurse | ? {
    $kuva = $_ | Get-Image
    if($kuva.Width -lt 960 -and $kuva.Height -lt 960){
        Write-Host $_.FullName -fore red
        Remove-Item $_.FullName -Force
        $pikkusii++
    }
    elseif($kuva.Width -lt 540 -or $kuva.Height -lt 540){
        Write-Host $_.FullName -fore yellow
        Remove-Item $_.FullName -Force
        $pikkusii++
    }
    $kuveja++
}

Write-Host "Pics browsed: $kuveja" -fore green
Write-Host "Small: $pikkusii" -fore green

Please understand that I am complete noob in PowerShell and I don't know a better place to ask this than here.

Answer 1

I think your $kuva reference is keeping the file open. Try performing the .Dispose() method before trying to remove the object. So something like this:

Get-ChildItem $path\* -Include *.jpg, *.jpeg* -Recurse | ? {
    $kuva = $_ | Get-Image
    if($kuva.Width -lt 960 -and $kuva.Height -lt 960){
        Write-Host $_.FullName -fore red
        $kuva.dispose()
        Remove-Item $_.FullName -Force
        $pikkusii++
    }
    elseif($kuva.Width -lt 540 -or $kuva.Height -lt 540){
        Write-Host $_.FullName -fore yellow
        $kuva.dispose()
        Remove-Item $_.FullName -Force
        $pikkusii++
    }
    $kuveja++
}

Answer 2

Get-ChildItem $path\* -Include *.jpg, *.jpeg* -Recurse | ? {
    # ...
}

? means Where-Object , but I think what you really want is ForEach-Object . The alias for ForEach-Object is % , but you should not use aliases in scripts for this very reason (it's less clear).

Try this:

Get-ChildItem $path\* -Include *.jpg, *.jpeg* -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
    # ...
}

If that doesn't work, you have Write-Host calls before the removes so are you seeing the red and yellow text that indicates the remove should be happening? You should try to run your script in ISE. Set a breakpoint right before the Remove-Item call, then step through the code.