Need eloquent PowerShell script to get oldest file in a directory
I'm creating a script to do the following:
Go into the default log file location for Exchange 2003
Get the list of files held inside
If it's E00*.log, I care about it.
If it's res1.log or res2.log or E00tmp.log, then I don't want it.
It grabs the oldest out of the pile of the E00's and grabs the current date.
If the current file is dated before today, then send me an email saying "Your Log files are old".
If it's not, send me an email saying "Your log files are currently within the nominal time frame".
Also it does a count of the entire directory.
So now that you've gotten the background, all I need help with is the code where it's supposed to get that actual one file into usable format.
I can do something like the code listed below
But the problem is it keeps giving me horrible output. I can get it to sort and format-table no problem. I just feel like I'm missing the big picture here. It should be "If it's not this or this, grab the date, stuff it into the variable"
That's all I need. Anyone think they can help me out?
Also, may I sa
Go into the default log file location for Exchange 2003
Get the list of files held inside
If it's E00*.log, I care about it.
If it's res1.log or res2.log or E00tmp.log, then I don't want it.
It grabs the oldest out of the pile of the E00's and grabs the current date.
If the current file is dated before today, then send me an email saying "Your Log files are old".
If it's not, send me an email saying "Your log files are currently within the nominal time frame".
Also it does a count of the entire directory.
So now that you've gotten the background, all I need help with is the code where it's supposed to get that actual one file into usable format.
I can do something like the code listed below
But the problem is it keeps giving me horrible output. I can get it to sort and format-table no problem. I just feel like I'm missing the big picture here. It should be "If it's not this or this, grab the date, stuff it into the variable"
That's all I need. Anyone think they can help me out?
Also, may I sa
$directory = C:\Scripts\*.log
$oldestfile = dir $directory | sort -property lastwritetime | select -first 3
"$oldestfile"
BSonPosh
what exactly do you want it to look like?
I apologize for digressing, but you don't want to delete log files, you want to run an online backup and flush them. NTBackup on the Exchange Server can do this online backup and flush the logs, and can be scheduled to run nightly.
Regards,
PfSC
Regards,
PfSC
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ASKER
BSonPosh (Bachelors of Science on Powershell?)
Does that mean you're a closet Microsoft MVP :)
I bet you're Bruce Payette himself.
Anyways, back to the problem:
I've also got to exclude *res* files. Currently, it doesn't work. But I think once you exclude res files from the process, it should work. I created an else after your last line that says "Your files are old".
Also, can I ask for you to show me exactly what you did...
I've got the meat and potatoes of it
? = if statement
$_.Name = every file .name
"E\d\d(xxxxxxxx)" = ?? What's the \d's, the ?! = if is not equal to I'm assuming and why is there a period before the asterisk and then tmp. How does that work?
-Dale
P.S. Thanks for the quick response!
Does that mean you're a closet Microsoft MVP :)
I bet you're Bruce Payette himself.
Anyways, back to the problem:
I've also got to exclude *res* files. Currently, it doesn't work. But I think once you exclude res files from the process, it should work. I created an else after your last line that says "Your files are old".
Also, can I ask for you to show me exactly what you did...
I've got the meat and potatoes of it
? = if statement
$_.Name = every file .name
"E\d\d(xxxxxxxx)" = ?? What's the \d's, the ?! = if is not equal to I'm assuming and why is there a period before the asterisk and then tmp. How does that work?
-Dale
P.S. Thanks for the quick response!
1) I am not a closet MVP.. its in my profile :)
2) BS = my intials (how cool right?)
3) Not Bruce :)
4) "E\d\d(?!(.*tmp))" is a regex... It should be any file that has E{digit}{digit} and number of characters but not tmp
\d = decimal
?| = Negative Lookahead
.* = any number of characters.
Try this
"^E\d\d(?!(.*tmp))"
2) BS = my intials (how cool right?)
3) Not Bruce :)
4) "E\d\d(?!(.*tmp))" is a regex... It should be any file that has E{digit}{digit} and number of characters but not tmp
\d = decimal
?| = Negative Lookahead
.* = any number of characters.
Try this
"^E\d\d(?!(.*tmp))"
ASKER
What about the *res* files. I'll need to do something like "E\d\d(?!(.*tmp) -or (.*res))"
Will that work?
I'll have to check out your profile :)
Will that work?
I'll have to check out your profile :)
you do NOT want Res or do want Res?
The regex with Get-Childitem should already exclude them.
The regex with Get-Childitem should already exclude them.
ASKER
Well my .log files were already within normal limits, but it definitely told me they were old. I can only assume that it was counting another file (res files). I don't want them counted. I can double check the output. Thanks again for the quick help.
-Dale
-Dale
ASKER
Okay I ended up adding
?!(.*tmp -or .*res)
and it didn't throw any errors.
Then I changed the -lt on the last line to -gt and it basically makes sure the log files are within 24 hours of the time I'm running the script. Saying "They are fresh".
Thanks a lot.
-Dale Harris
?!(.*tmp -or .*res)
and it didn't throw any errors.
Then I changed the -lt on the last line to -gt and it basically makes sure the log files are within 24 hours of the time I'm running the script. Saying "They are fresh".
Thanks a lot.
-Dale Harris
ASKER
Very quick, custom and efficient. You gave me all I asked for and then some. Thanks a lot for also going into detail and explaining it so I can actually learn from this experience.
the -or wont work... that is a Powershell operator not a regex operator.
Try this
"^E\d\d(?!(.*(tmp|res)))"
Try this
"^E\d\d(?!(.*(tmp|res)))"
ASKER
It works great. Thanks. Also, you've got quite a nice blog/website. It motivates me to get better at Powershell. I'll be picking up the book written by Bruce Payette. Thanks again for all the help.