The PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking Book - Error completing exercise

PowerShell Help
1

Hi All
I am thoroughly enjoying working my way (slowly) thrrough the above book but I am having a problem completing the chapter “An Interlude: Changing Your Approach”.

In the function “Get-UserHomeFolderInfo”, there is line “$user = Get-ADUser @params”. When i run that function I get an error “Get-ADUser : Cannot find an object with identity: ‘administrator.HOME’ under: 'DC=home”, which is unexpected. Any ideas why I am getting this and not the expected behaviour?

function Get-FolderSize {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,
                   ValueFromPipeline=$True,
                   ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True)]
        [string[]]$Path
    )
    BEGIN {}
    PROCESS {
        ForEach ($folder in $path) {
            Write-Verbose "Checking $folder"
            if (Test-Path -Path $folder) {
                Write-Verbose " + Path exists"
                $params = @{'Path'=$folder
                            'Recurse'=$true
                            'File'=$true}
                $measure = Get-ChildItem @params |
                           Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum
                [pscustomobject]@{'Path'=$folder
                                  'Files'=$measure.count
                                  'Bytes'=$measure.sum}
            } else {
                Write-Verbose " - Path does not exist"
                [pscustomobject]@{'Path'=$folder
                                  'Files'=0
                                  'Bytes'=0}
            } #if folder exists
        } #foreach
    } #PROCESS
    END {}
} #function

function Get-UserHomeFolderInfo {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
        [string]$HomeRootPath
    )
    BEGIN {}
    PROCESS {
        Write-Verbose "Enumerating $HomeRootPath"
        $params = @{'Path'=$HomeRootPath
                    'Directory'=$True}
        ForEach ($folder in (Get-ChildItem @params)) {
            
            Write-Verbose "Checking $($folder.name)"
            $params = @{'Identity'=$folder.name
                        'ErrorAction'='SilentlyContinue'}
            $user = Get-ADUser @params

            if ($user) {
                Write-Verbose " + User exists"
                $result = Get-FolderSize -Path $folder.fullname
                [pscustomobject]@{'User'=$folder.name
                                  'Path'=$folder.fullname
                                  'Files'=$result.files
                                  'Bytes'=$result.bytes
                                  'Status'='OK'}
            } else {
                Write-Verbose " - User does not exist"
                [pscustomobject]@{'User'=$folder.name
                                  'Path'=$folder.fullname
                                  'Files'=0
                                  'Bytes'=0
                                  'Status'="Orphan"}
            } #if user exists

        } #foreach
    } #PROCESS
    END {}
}

Powershell cmdline output:

PS C:\Dev\Powershell> Get-UserHomeFolderInfo -verbose

cmdlet Get-UserHomeFolderInfo at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
HomeRootPath: c:\users
VERBOSE: Enumerating c:\users
VERBOSE: Checking Administrator
VERBOSE: + User exists
VERBOSE: Checking C:\users\Administrator
VERBOSE: + Path exists

User : Administrator
Path : C:\users\Administrator
Files : 189
Bytes : 7623892
Status : OK

: Checking administrator.HOME
ser : Cannot find an object with identity: ‘administrator.HOME’ under: 'DC=home,DC=kelly,DC=za
rogram Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\FolderInfo\FolderInfo.psm1:50 char:21
$user = Get-ADUser @params
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (administrator.HOME:ADUser) [Get-ADUser], ADIdentityNot
ullyQualifiedErrorId : ActiveDirectoryCmdlet:Microsoft.ActiveDirectory.Management.ADIdentityNo
soft.ActiveDirectory.Management.Commands.GetADUser

: + User exists
: Checking C:\users\administrator.HOME
: + Path exists
: administrator.HOME
: C:\users\administrator.HOME
: 287
: 12951945
: OK

2

There is no user named administrator.home on the domain home.

There’s just a folder administrator.home
The folder names under users do not always match a users name. Rename an old user and notice the folder name does not change.

I’m guessing there is a folder for a local user named administrator and one for a domain user home\administrator.

Get-aduser can’t find a user that is not there.

The next part of the function is just checking that the folder named administrator.home exist.

IF there is any thing stored in $user it checks the folder.

3

Hi Frank, thx for answering

When I look at the code, I am expecting that if the user Administrator.home is not found, I would get a messages saying “- User does not exist”:

      if ($user) {
                Write-Verbose " + User exists"
                $result = Get-FolderSize -Path $folder.fullname
                [pscustomobject]@{'User'=$folder.name
                                  'Path'=$folder.fullname
                                  'Files'=$result.files
                                  'Bytes'=$result.bytes
                                  'Status'='OK'}
            } else {
                Write-Verbose " - User does not exist"
                [pscustomobject]@{'User'=$folder.name
                                  'Path'=$folder.fullname
                                  'Files'=0
                                  'Bytes'=0
                                  'Status'="Orphan"}
            } #if user exists

Instead of getting alot of ugly red text and then a messaging saying the user does exist and the folder size for administrator.Home. Am I misunderstanding something?

4

There is data in $user so the Else statement is not being used.

 function just-test{
    $user ="xyz"
    $user = get-aduser -identity $user -erroraction silentlyContinue
    
    if ($user){
        write-host $user "still has the value of xyz"    
    }
    else{
        write-host $user "the else is not going to run because $user has data"
    }
}
5 
function just-test{
    $user ="xyz"
    $aduser = get-aduser -identity $user -erroraction silentlyContinue
    
    if ($aduser){
        write-host $user "exists"   
    }
    else{
        write-host $user "does not exists"
    }
}
6

Thx Frank, I get it now - I had to reread it a few times but I got there in the end!
I had the crazy assumption that because the identity “administrator.home” coud not be found then
the variable “$user” would not contain any value :slight_smile: