{"id":13315,"date":"2017-01-30T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sapien.com\/blog\/?p=13315"},"modified":"2017-01-28T13:25:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-28T21:25:10","slug":"friday-puzzle-why-doesnt-include-include","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/30\/friday-puzzle-why-doesnt-include-include\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Puzzle: Why doesn\u2019t Include include?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, January 20, 2017, I posted the following puzzle on Twitter <\/a>and Facebook <\/a>(and here<\/a>!).<\/p>\n

It shows a Get-ChildItem<\/a> command where the value of the Path<\/strong> parameter is $PSHome, the Windows PowerShell installation directory, and the value of the Include<\/strong> parameter is ‘*ps1xml.’ The command returns nothing — not a single file — even though the next command shows that there are 14 *.ps1xml files in the root of the $PSHome directory.<\/p>\n

What happened here? Why didn’t the Get-ChildItem -Include command work?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This might enlighten you. Or, confuse you even more. In this command, we add ‘\\*’ to the path, which indicates its immediate subfolders. When you add ‘\\*’, Get-ChildItem gets the .ps1xml files in its root<\/u><\/em><\/strong> folder.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And, adding -Recurse<\/strong> works, too, although it gets all .ps1xml files in all subdirectories of $PSHome recursively. And, sadly the Depth<\/strong> parameter (new in PowerShell 5.0) seems to have no effect on Get-ChildItem when -Include or -Exclude are used (not documented).<\/p>\n

PS C:\\> Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHome -Include '*ps1xml' -Recurse<\/pre>\n
What’s going on here?<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
About the Include Parameter<\/h1>\n
To solve the mystery, look at help for the Include<\/strong> parameter. I worked really hard to get this parameter description right, so I remember it well.<\/p>\n
As we’ve found, the Include<\/strong> parameter works only when the path includes “\\*” or the command includes the Recurse<\/strong> parameter.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
The coolest thing about the Include<\/strong> and Exclude<\/strong> parameters are that they take an array of values, and include or exclude all items in the array.<\/p>\n
PS C:\\ > Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHOME\\* -Include \"*.xml\", \"*.txt\"<\/pre>\n
TIP: <\/strong>Exclude does not require -Recurse or ‘\\*’<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
Include<\/strong> is critical in PowerShell 2.0, because the Recurse<\/strong> parameter doesn’t work on items that have no child-items.<\/p>\n
# This fails<\/span>\r\nPS C:\\> Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHome\\*.ps1xml -Recurse<\/pre>\n
In Windows PowerShell 2.0, you need to do this:<\/p>\n
# This works<\/span>\r\nPS C:\\> Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHome\\* -Recurse -Include '*ps1xml'<\/pre>\n
Which parameters can you use?<\/h1>\n
To get .psm1xml files in a directory, you can specify the file name extension on the Path parameter.<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHome\\*.ps1xml<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
Beginning in PowerShell 3.0, you can use the Recurse<\/strong> parameter even when the Path<\/strong> value is an item without child-items (a “leaf”).<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHome\\*.ps1xml -Recurse<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
You can also use the Filter<\/strong> parameter. But neither take an array.<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHome -Filter \"*.ps1xml\"\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\n
You can also use the Exclude<\/strong> parameter, which works without the ‘\\*’ and Recurse, although it has the opposite effect. And, like Include<\/strong>, when you use the Recurse<\/strong> parameter with Exclude<\/strong>, the Depth<\/strong> parameter has no effect.<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHome -Exclude \"*.ps1xml\"<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
And, you can pipe the result to Where-Object or the Where method, although those options are significantly slower.<\/p>\n
PS C:\\> Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHOME | Where-Object {$_.Extension -eq '.ps1xml' -or $_.Extension -eq '.dll'}<\/pre>\n
PS C:\\> (Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHOME).where({$_.Extension -eq '.ps1xml' -or $_.Extension -eq '.dll'})<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
Read the help!<\/h1>\n
So, the moral of the story is to read the help. And, when the help is missing or wrong, file an issue on UserVoice<\/a> or in the PowerShell-Docs repo on GitHub<\/a>. The cool folks on the PowerShell team, and their open-source helpers, respond very quickly.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
Like this Friday PowerShell Puzzle? Find more puzzles here<\/a>. If you have a PowerShell puzzle suggestion, post it here or ping me on Twitter at @juneb_get_help<\/a>.<\/p>\n
June Blender is a technology evangelist at SAPIEN Technologies, Inc and a Microsoft Cloud & Datacenter MVP. You can reach her at juneb@sapien.com<\/a> or follow her on Twitter at @juneb_get_help<\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Friday, January 20, 2017, I posted the following puzzle on Twitter and Facebook (and here!). It shows a Get-ChildItem command where the value of the Path parameter is $PSHome, the Windows PowerShell installation directory, and the value of the Include parameter is ‘*ps1xml.’ The command returns nothing — not a single file — even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[932,2,1143,941,1182,25],"tags":[1187,934,28,1186],"class_list":["post-13315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beginners","category-general","category-powershell","category-powershell-5-0","category-puzzle","category-windows-powershell","tag-friday-puzzle","tag-juneb","tag-powershell","tag-puzzle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t