Search and Remove files based on last exit code

PowerShell Help
1

Hi, I would like to ask for your assistance in creating a script to find and remove two unwanted files on our Workstations. I can use a one liner using G-tchilditem -Recurse and then Remov-item. but I’ve realized that I need to add a bit more logic so the script only executes if the result of the Select-string-paten is not a successful $lastExitCode “0”.

$filea = C:\users\ * (This file can exist anywhere within a users profile.)
$Fileb = C:* (This file can exist anywhere in the C Drive)
$checkfile = C:\apps\Checkfile.txt

1 The first time the script will execute with no porbome because there is no check file.
2 On subsequent times the script would need to read the contents of the checkfile.txt select-string -pattern “0”
3. The Remove-Item command would execute and the check file would be created with Add-content $lastexitCode

My problem is developing the logic to determine whether the script needs to run or no t based on the content of the checkfile.txt.

Would I use the Test-path to determine the existence of the Checkfile?

Hopefully I am making sense.

Thank you

2

Ben,
Welcome to the forums.

I’m unsure if I really understood your logic. How do you identify the files to delete and what are the conditions for the files to be deleted?

Regardless of that - could you please format your code as code here in the forum?
Thanks in advacne.

1 Like
3

Hi, sorry for the confusion . This is what would like to acomplish.

$sestr = "ExitCode:0"
$sefile = 'C:\apps\Checkfile.txt'

# If $sefile exists, read content and search for pattern $sestr

    if (Test-path -path $sefile)
    {
 $seresults = Get-Content $sefile | Select-String -Pattern $sestr
    if($seresults)
    {
    Exit 
    }
    Else{
        Get-ChildItem -path C:\ -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where {$_.Name -Match "Filea123.txt"} | Remove-Item -Force

        New-Item -ItemType file $sefile -Value "ExitCode:$lastexitcode"
        
        }
         }
4

Hmmm … I’m still unsure if I got it. But it seems like you’ve got what you wanted, right? :wink:

Anyway … you could streamline your code a little bit like this: :wink:

$sestr  = 'ExitCode:0'
$sefile = 'C:\apps\Checkfile.txt'
if (Test-Path -Path $sefile) {
    if (-not (Select-String -Path $sefile -Pattern $sestr -SimpleMatch -Quiet)) {
        Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Filter 'Filea123.txt' -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | 
            Remove-Item -Force
        New-Item -ItemType File $sefile -Value "ExitCode:$lastexitcode"
    }
}

Do you really want to search your complete C: drive? I’d recommend to exclude certain folders or even better to include only the possible options.

1 Like
5

Thank your your help Olaf. I’d like to ask one more question. This code works perfectly if the checkfile.txt file exits. How can I make it work if the checkfile.txt does not exit? It makes sense to me that if the file does not exist , skip the select-string pattern match and execute the Get-childitem | Remove-item portion of the code. Once again thank you for your help.

6

Wait. What? If you want to run the code regardless of any condition you just run the code without any condition!? :thinking:
What’s the point to add a condition if you want to run the code anyway?