Get the list of files that are getting copied in PowerShell

Question

I am using the PowerShell Copy-Item command to copy a directory with files to another location.

I want to display all the files on the console that are getting copied so that I know the status of the copy command.

This might be useful - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2434133/progress-during-large-file-copy-copy-item-write-progress — Daniel PP Cabral, Dec 11 '12 at 08:01

score 52 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 29 '17 at 19:35

52

If you just want to see that in console, use the -verbose switch:

copy-item -path $from -destination $to -verbose

If you want to get a list of files or directories:

$files = copy-item -path $from -destination $to -passthru | ?{$_ -is [system.io.fileinfo]}

edited Nov 29 '17 at 19:35

cxw

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answered Dec 11 '12 at 10:23

Jackie

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Another way for testing if an item is a file is to use `? {!$_.PSIsContainer}`. Also, in V3 you can do this `$files = copy-item $from $to -verbose 4>&1` – Keith Hill Dec 11 '12 at 15:48
"-verbose" works fine. Thank you. Too bad it's not in the documentation. – n-develop Jan 07 '21 at 07:22
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`-Verbose` reports a whole lot of extra information, is there a way to tell it to just output the names of the files copied? – yoyo Jan 15 '21 at 01:17

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 11 '12 at 08:10

5

$source=ls c:\temp *.*
$i=1
$source| %{
    [int]$percent = $i / $source.count * 100
    Write-Progress -Activity "Copying ... ($percent %)" -status $_  -PercentComplete $percent -verbose
    copy $_.fullName -Destination c:\test 
    $i++
}

answered Dec 11 '12 at 08:10

Loïc MICHEL

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This is a really good solution but is not what i need really. The above solution is a little more simple. – tusharmath Dec 11 '12 at 16:06

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 13 '22 at 09:41

If you want to directly output the filenames, you can do it this way:

With Path

Copy-Item -Path $from -Destination $to –PassThru | ForEach-Object { Write-Host $_.FullName }

FileName Only

Copy-Item -Path $from -Destination $to –PassThru | ForEach-Object { Write-Host $_.Name }

Martin Connell · Answer 4 · 2019-11-17T18:29:20.600

2

I suggest to try it this way:

(Copy-Item -Verbose C:\SrcDir\*.* c:\DstDir 4>&1).Message

Here the messages go to the output stream/pipeline rather than the verbose stream/pipeline and so will work more generally such as in TFS task scripts.

edited Nov 17 '19 at 18:29

answered Mar 29 '18 at 17:50

Martin Connell

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Get the list of files that are getting copied in PowerShell

4 Answers4