have Powershell get-childitem return files only

Question

I'd like to use get-childitem recursively, but only have it return files not directories. The best solution I have just doesn't seem natural:

gci . *.* -rec | where { $_.GetType().Name -eq "FileInfo" }

score 161 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 17 '13 at 17:34

161

In Powershell 3.0, it is simpler,

gci -Directory #List only directories
gci -File #List only files

This is even shorter,

gci -ad # alias for -Directory
gci -af # alias for -File

edited Jul 17 '13 at 17:34

Chris Magnuson

answered Jan 24 '13 at 21:16

iraSenthil

2

gci -File -Name to get only the names of the files – Jeremy Hajek Nov 16 '21 at 18:26

score 102 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 09 '10 at 18:06

102

Try this:

gci . *.* -rec | where { ! $_.PSIsContainer }

answered Jun 09 '10 at 18:06

Andy

9

if you're excluding containers then you can leave off the * . *, right? – MDMoore313 Sep 01 '16 at 13:33

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 13 '23 at 10:33

0

This is not working when anyone named the folder xxx.PDF:

get-childitem -Recurse -include *.pdf

Best then you can do:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Include *.pdf | where { ! $_.PSIsContainer }

edited Feb 13 '23 at 10:33

Dominique

answered Feb 13 '23 at 09:53

MadMorpheus

1

Some explanations are welcome. – Toto Feb 13 '23 at 10:17
Are you running powershell on Unix or another case-sensitive platform? I wonder if .pdf needs to be .PDF to match those files. – Frank Schwieterman Feb 22 '23 at 02:01

score -5 · Answer 4 · answered May 07 '15 at 11:27

-5

In powershell 2.0 the best and simplest solution i came up with is to include all files with an extension:

get-childitem -Recurse -include *.*

folders doesn't have an extension so they are excluded, beware of no extension named files.

answered May 07 '15 at 11:27

14

This (about directories) is not true. Nothing can stop you to have directory with extension – Romeo Ninov May 07 '15 at 11:51
1

Bold assertion of yours, "folders don't have an extension"
It's quite typical to have dots in folder names, for example when they represent versions.
– Raúl Salinas-Monteagudo Feb 05 '20 at 08:17

4 Answers4