First we get all .txt-files on the C-drive, -File specify what files, -Recurse makes it search all subfolders, -Force includes hidden files and -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue makes it ignore folders it cannot read inside.
Get-ChildItem C:\ -File *.txt -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Now we want to search inside these files, for this we use Select-String:
Select-String -Pattern "Microsoft" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
This will list the files once for each occurrence of "Microsoft" inside the files, we don't are about the text, all we want is the file name and path (-ExpandProperty will force powershell to give us the full path even if it is very long, If you only use -Property it may cut of the result):
Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path
We only want to see each file once:
Group-Object
And we want to use only the full path of the files:
Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
If we put everything together it become:
Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse -File *.txt -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-String -Pattern "Microsoft" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path | Group-Object | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
You can replace the search text and path with variables:
$SearchPath="C:\"
$SearchText="Anothertext"
$SearchFiles="*.txt"
$SearchFiles="*.txt"
Get-ChildItem $SearchPath -Recurse -File $SearchFiles -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-String -Pattern "$SearchText" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path | Group-Object | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
If I want to do this the old way this is what the script would look like:
@ECHO OFF
FOR /F "delims=" %%A IN ('DIR /S /B "C:\*.txt"') DO (
FINDSTR /M /I "Microsoft" "%%A"
)
I wanted to see if powershell is faster than an oldschool cmd script and I used the:
Measure-Command { put the command in here }
It took 11.95 seconds with Powershell and 32.52 seconds for CMD!
Please note that I have run the commands several time to make sure Windows have had time to cache the information. I started with Powershell and then CMD.
Can it be done with less pipes? I don't know, you tell me how!
To find files where "Microsoft" exists more than once (you can change "1" to whatever):
Get-ChildItem C:\ -Force -Recurse -File *.txt -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-String -Pattern "Microsoft" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path | Group-Object | Where-Object {$_.count -gt 1} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
If we want to use this command in our daily work it would be nice to make a Powershell Module.
It could looks something like this:
#=== FILE Get-FilesFindText.psm1 BEGINS ===
Function Get-FilesFindText {
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Search for files that includes specified text
.DESCRIPTION
Windows Powershell version of Grep
It does what you can do with:
@ECHO OFF
FOR /F "delims=" %%A IN ('DIR /S /B "C:\*.txt"') DO (
FINDSTR /M /I "Microsoft" "%%A"
)
But in about 1/3 of the time!
Copy the file Get-FilesFindText.psd1 & Get-FilesFindText.psm1 into a new folder called Get-FilesFindText
Copy the new folder into "C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules"
or another fodler in your $ENV:PSModulePath and run: Import-Module Get-FilesFindText
Verify by running "Get-Modules". Get-FilesFindText Should be listed.
.NOTES
File name: Get-FilesFindText
Author: David Djerf
Blog: http://djerfhowididit.blogspot.se/
.PARAMETER SearchPath
What path to search, for example: "c:\Program Files"
.PARAMETER SearchFiles
What file type to search for, for example: "*.txt"
.PARAMETER SearchText
What text are you searching for, for example: "Microsoft"
.PARAMETER ListOnlyIfMoreThan
List only files that occurs in the result more than x times, must be an integer.
.EXAMPLE
Get-FilesFindText -SearchPath "C:\Program Files" -SearchText "Microsoft" -SearchFiles *.txt -ListOnlyIfMoreThan 1
#>
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,
HelpMessage='Specify a search path: [c:\Windows]')]
[string]$SearchPath,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,
HelpMessage='Specify text to search for [findme]')]
[string]$SearchText,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,
HelpMessage='Specify files to search for [*.txt]')]
[string]$SearchFiles,
[int]$ListOnlyIfMoreThan
)
BEGIN {
IF (!$ListOnlyIfMoreThan) { $ListOnlyIfMoreThan=0 }
$SearchPath=Resolve-Path $SearchPath # Get a proper path
} # End of BEGIN
PROCESS {
IF ($SearchPath) {
$files=Get-ChildItem $SearchPath -Recurse -File $SearchFiles -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-String -Pattern "$SearchText" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path | Group-Object | Where-Object {$_.count -gt $ListOnlyIfMoreThan } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
foreach ($file in $files) {
$properties = [ordered]@{'FilePath'=Resolve-Path $file
} #End of properties
# Make objects
$output = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $properties
Write-Output $output
} #End of foreach
} # End of IF
} # End of Process
} # End of Function
#=== FILE Get-FilesFindText.psm1 ENDS ===
#=== FILE Get-FilesFindText.psd1 BEGINS ===
@{
RootModule = 'Get-FilesFindText.psm1'
ModuleVersion = '2017.2.10.2207'
GUID = 'e6e80f2b-aaa4-41e0-a4a7-475c9fbbae69'
Author = 'David Djerf'
Description = 'Find text and list the file paths. Windows version of linux grep'
}
#=== FILE Get-FilesFindText.psd1 ENDS ===
