# Checking multiple files ... **URL:** \ **Category:** PowerShell Help\ **Created:** [December 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/checking-multiple-files/345 "2011-12-31T18:30:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![archives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archives](https://forums.powershell.org/u/archives)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/checking-multiple-files/345/1 "2011-12-31T18:30:00Z")
by Lahru at 2012-11-19 11:26:40 > Is there a way to do this? > For each/all files in a directory. > Subtract the file’s modified time from the current time > then > If the time frame for ANY file is outside of a specified timeframe > Complete an action? > > My purpose in this is to check up on a proprietary service that sometimes hangs but doesn’t stop. > If I could script the logic outlined above, then finding a file that is so many minutes old would indicate that the service isn’t working and I’d like to then trigger an alert. by DonJ at 2012-11-19 11:32:26 > Yeah, pretty easily. > > `Get-ChildItem -path \whatever | ForEach {}` > > Inside that ForEach block, you’d put your calculation and use an If construct to check your timeframe. Something like $_.LastWriteTime - $_.CreationTime would be the calculation. > > In v3, add the -File parameter to Get-ChildItem so that it doesn’t return directories, if there are subfolders in there. Add -recurse to recurse files in subfolders. by Lahru at 2012-11-19 12:25:52 > OK, awesome, so that gets me here: `$files = get-childitem -path \any\where* -include *.pdf, *.tif, *.jpgForeach ($file in $files) { $time = ((get-date) - $file.LastWriteTime).Totalminutes IF($time -gt 2) { Write-Host "$file is $time minutes old." } }`What I’d like to do is send an email rather than write-host and I can do this with the send-MailMessage Cmdlet, but I don’t need a message per file. > So is there a way to get only 1 ACTION if 2 files return $True? > > I could write a new-item to a specific directory and then check that directory sending a message if a Trigger File exists, but I think that is getting too complicated. by DonJ at 2012-11-19 12:39:03 > Write-Host is evil ;). > > Just accumulate your message in a variable: > > $message = ‘’ > > And: > > $message += "$file is $time minutes old" > > You can pass that to Send-MailMessage at the end of your script. Is $message -eq ‘’ at the end, then don’t send anything. I could probably turn this into a one-liner, even. > > `$mailbody = Dir \any\where* -include .txt,.pdf | where { ((get-date) - $.lastwritetime).totalminutes -gt 2 } | Select @{n=‘File’;e={$.name}},@{n=‘Minutes Old’;e={((get-date) - $.lastwritetime).totalminutes}} ` > > _Then just use Send-MailMessage and $mailbody. Shame Send-Mail doesn’t accept pipeline input. Coulda made it a true one-liner._ _by Lahru at 2012-11-20 08:18:35_ _> Ok I am not completely certain what is happening in your one liner. But I need to refine my trigger for the action regardless of the action. > > I want to send an alert or complete an action such as restarting a service, > but I don’t want to send out 50 messages (1 for each file) & I don’t want to restart a service 50 times either. > **How would I get 1 single action out of this?** > So in other words; regardless of whether I get 1 old file or 100 I want only 1 alert. How can I do that? > > my attempts to run the one-liner against a directory I know has files that match the "too old" parmeters I get this]Send-MailMessage : Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Body'. The argument is null or empty. Supply an argument that is not null or empty and then try the command again.[/powershell]_ _by DonJ at 2012-11-20 08:26:34_ > _`$mailbody = Dir \any\where* -include .txt,.pdf | where { ((get-date) - $`_`.lastwritetime).totalminutes -gt 2 } | Select @{n=‘File’;e={$.name}},@{n=‘Minutes Old’;e={((get-date) - $.lastwritetime).totalminutes}} if ($mailbody) { Send-MailMessage -To x -From x -Body $mailbody }` > > The one-liner is just doing what your script was doing. If you prefer that: > > `$files = get-childitem -path \any\where* -include *.pdf, *.tif, *.jpg$message = ‘’Foreach ($file in $files) { $time = ((get-date) - $file.LastWriteTime).Totalminutes IF($time -gt 2) { $message += "$file is $time minutes old.`n" } }if ($message -ne ‘’) { Send-MailMessage -To x -From x -Body $message }` > > You got the error because, I suspect, you tacked Send-MailMessage onto the end of what I gave you. Can’t do that, because nothing in it accepts pipeline input. ---
**Author:** ![dotnVo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@dotnVo](https://forums.powershell.org/u/dotnVo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://forums.powershell.org/t/checking-multiple-files/345/2 "2024-05-16T21:03:49Z")