Powershell GetChildItem no path listed

Question

I have a PowerShell script to scan entire shared drives to create a records retention inventory. However, when I run the code, I get several rows back where there is a file name but no directory name.

I thought at first these files were on the main root drive that I was scanning but they're not. Any reason why PowerShell would return a file name, its file size and the associated dates but no directory name?

I've tried manually searching based on the file names but can't locate them.

I'm using variables to path the source and destination information into the script but this should make sense.

$properties = @( @{ Name = 'File Size (MB)' Expression = {[math]::Round(($_.Length / 1MB),2)} } 'DirectoryName' 'Name' 'CreationTime' 'LastWriteTime' @{ Name = 'Age' Expression = {[math]::Round(([datetime]::Now - $_.LastWriteTime).TotalDays /365,2)} } ) $target_files = Get-ChildItem $sourcepath* -recurse -include "*" | Select-Object $properties | Export-Csv $destinationpath\${destinationfilename}.csv -NoTypeInformation

thank you in advance, MS

Try also to include the .FullName property. (DirectoryName is not the same as the full path). What is $sourcepath* and why the -Include '*' and why not add switch -File? Without the latter Get-ChildItem also returns DirectoryInfo objects. — Theo
– Theo, Commented Sep 20, 2021 at 19:25
Are the ones without a DirectoryName themselves a directory? — lit
– lit, Commented Sep 20, 2021 at 20:35

Theo · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-21 14:19:46Z

Continuing from my comment.

A FileInfo object has different properties than a DirectoryInfo object. Most notably for your question is the DirectoryName property, which exists on a FileInfo but not on a DirectoryInfo object.

For instance, these properties are returned for a DirectoryInfo object:

PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::D:\Test PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::D:\ PSChildName : Test PSDrive : D PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem PSIsContainer : True Mode : d----- BaseName : Test Target : {} LinkType : Name : Test FullName : D:\Test Parent : Exists : True Root : D:\ Extension : CreationTime : 4-5-2020 15:33:48 CreationTimeUtc : 4-5-2020 13:33:48 LastAccessTime : 21-9-2021 15:59:43 LastAccessTimeUtc : 21-9-2021 13:59:43 LastWriteTime : 19-9-2021 21:41:48 LastWriteTimeUtc : 19-9-2021 19:41:48 Attributes : Directory

And here the properties for a FileInfo object:

PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::D:\Test\Blah.txt PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::D:\Test PSChildName : Blah.txt PSDrive : D PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem PSIsContainer : False Mode : -a---- VersionInfo : File: D:\Test\Blah.txt InternalName: OriginalFilename: FileVersion: FileDescription: Product: ProductVersion: Debug: False Patched: False PreRelease: False PrivateBuild: False SpecialBuild: False Language: BaseName : Blah Target : {} LinkType : Name : Blah.txt Length : 0 DirectoryName : D:\Test Directory : D:\Test IsReadOnly : False Exists : True FullName : D:\Test\Blah.txt Extension : .txt CreationTime : 21-9-2021 16:04:49 CreationTimeUtc : 21-9-2021 14:04:49 LastAccessTime : 21-9-2021 16:04:49 LastAccessTimeUtc : 21-9-2021 14:04:49 LastWriteTime : 21-9-2021 16:04:49 LastWriteTimeUtc : 21-9-2021 14:04:49 Attributes : Archive

The main problem with your code is that you do not use the -File switch on Get-ChildItem and because of that, the cmdlet returns objects for both files and directories.

In your $properties array, replace 'DirectoryName' with 'FullName', remove the asteriks from $sourcepath* and leave out -include "*" :

$properties = @{Name = 'File Size (MB)'; Expression = {[math]::Round(($_.Length / 1MB),2)}}, 'FullName','Name','CreationTime','LastWriteTime', @{Name = 'Age'; Expression = {[math]::Round(([datetime]::Now - $_.LastWriteTime).TotalDays / 365,2)}} # use Join-Path to safely construct the path and filename for the output $outputPath = Join-Path -Path $destinationpath -ChildPath ('{0}.csv' -f $destinationfilename) Get-ChildItem $sourcepath -File -Recurse | Select-Object $properties | Export-Csv -Path $outputPath -NoTypeInformation

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