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" }

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

Try this:

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

Answer 3

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 }

Answer 4

In PowerShell 7, one can use -File switch:

Get-ChildItem *.pdf -Recurse -File

Answer 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.