Remove empty folders

[brhessel]

Looking for some help. I am scripting the move of files with a last
access time older than 30 days and I would like to remove the folder
that contains these files if that folder is empty after the files are
moved. Here is what I have so far to move the files and maintain the
folder structure. (Thanks to other posts on here)

$now = get-Date
get-ChildItem -recurse *|Where-Object{$_.LastAccessTime -le
$now.AddDays(-30)}|move-item -Destination {join-path 'Z:'
$_.FullName.SubString($pwd.Path.length)} -PassThru -Whatif

any help is appreciated.

[dreeschkind]

ls . -fi * -rec | ?{$_.psiscontainer} | %{if (@(gci $_.fullname).count -eq 0)
{del $_.fullname -whatif}}

--
greetings
dreeschkind

[RichS]

Something like this should remove the empty folders. Modify the "c:\" in the
getfolder to point to the root of the folders you want to test

$fso = New-Object -com "Scripting.FileSystemObject"
$folder = $fso.GetFolder("C:\")

foreach ($subfolder in $folder.SubFolders)
{
If ($subfolder.Size -eq 0)
{

remove-item $subfolder.Path -Verbose

}

}

--
Richard Siddaway
Please note that all scripts are supplied "as is" and with no warranty
Blog: http://richardsiddaway.spaces.live.com/
PowerShell User Group: http://www.get-psuguk.org.uk

[Kiron]

If you want to include hidden and read-only empty folders include the -force
parameter:

To see if a folder is empty:

# True if empty
!(gci <path> -fo)

To remove all empty folders under <path>:

ri (gci <path> -r -fo | ? {$_.PSIsContainer -and !(gci
$_.fullName -fo)}).fullName -fo

--
Kiron

[Kiron]

Scratch my previous answer, I tested it and only worked on the first empty
folder. This one does the job:

To see if a folder is empty:

# True if empty
!(gci <path> -fo)

To remove "all" empty folders under <path>:

foreach($dir in @(gci <path> -r -fo | ? {$_.PSIsContainer -and !(gci
$_.fullName -fo)})) {ri $dir.fullName -fo}

--
Kiron

[ryanbeesley]

I'm not sure this quite works.

>To see if a folder is empty:
>

>!(gci <path> -fo)
>
>To remove "all" empty folders under <path>:
>
>foreach($dir in @(gci <path> -r -fo | ? {$_.PSIsContainer -and !(gci $_.fullName -fo)})) {ri $dir.fullName -fo}

The problem is that you may have a tree like this

|
|\DIR1
| |\DIR1.1 (empty)
| \DIR1.2 (empty)
\DIR2 (empty)

The above script will remove DIR1.1, DIR1.2, and DIR2, but it will leave DIR1 because when it was checked it wasn't empty, it contained Items DIR1.1 and DIR1.2. With a massively deep tree, this leaves many branches untrimed.

This is what I came up with:

foreach ($dir in @(gci . -r | where {$_.PSIsContainer} | sort -descending fullName)) {ri $dir.fullName | where {!(gci $dir.fullName)}}

First I build a list of all possible directories and I sort it decending so that the parent directory is always after the children in the list. Then I iterate over that list and only remove the directory if it has no children. Since I am working from a list of directories created before I start deleting, this lets me check each directory along the way and should prune everything.

To use, CD to the directory you want to prune, and run the above statement.

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com

[RyanBee]

Slight change... the old way kept prompting me... I relized that I should
have been using an if statement instead of where... try this instead.

foreach ($dir in @(gci . -r | where {$_.PSIsContainer} | sort -descending

fullName)) {if (!(gci $dir.fullName)) {ri $dir.fullName}}

[Kiron]

Thanks for catching that and fixing the script. I'm guilty of not testing
_thoroughly_ :)

--
Kiron

[Wammus]

Just for testing I changed the line to:

ForEach ($dir in @(Get-ChildItem . -Recurse | Where {$_.PSIsContainer} | Sort -Descending FullName)) {
If (!(Get-ChildItem $dir.FullName)) {$dir.FullName}}

Now it also displays directories that have the (special) characters [ and ] in them (which are not empty at all)

When I change the last part of the command back to {Remove-Item $dir.fullName -WhatIf} it only displays the empty folders and not the folders that have [ and/or ] in the name.

Any solution/suggestion?

RyanBe wrote:

Slight change... the old way kept prompting me...

14-Jul-07

Slight change... the old way kept prompting me... I relized that I should
have been using an if statement instead of where... try this instead.

foreach ($dir in @(gci . -r | where {$_.PSIsContainer} | sort -descending
fullName)) {if (!(gci $dir.fullName)) {ri $dir.fullName}}

"Ryan Beesley" wrote:

Previous Posts In This Thread:

On Tuesday, June 26, 2007 3:08 PM
brhessel wrote:

Remove empty folders

Looking for some help. I am scripting the move of files with a last
access time older than 30 days and I would like to remove the folder
that contains these files if that folder is empty after the files are
moved. Here is what I have so far to move the files and maintain the
folder structure. (Thanks to other posts on here)

$now = get-Date
get-ChildItem -recurse *|Where-Object{$_.LastAccessTime -le
$now.AddDays(-30)}|move-item -Destination {join-path 'Z:'
$_.FullName.SubString($pwd.Path.length)} -PassThru -Whatif

any help is appreciated.

On Tuesday, June 26, 2007 5:08 PM
dreeschkin wrote:

ls . -fi * -rec | ?
ls . -fi * -rec | ?{$_.psiscontainer} | %{if (@(gci $_.fullname).count -eq 0)
{del $_.fullname -whatif}}

--
greetings
dreeschkind

"brhessel" wrote:

On Tuesday, June 26, 2007 5:11 PM
Rich wrote:

Something like this should remove the empty folders.
Something like this should remove the empty folders. Modify the "c:\" in the
getfolder to point to the root of the folders you want to test

$fso = New-Object -com "Scripting.FileSystemObject"
$folder = $fso.GetFolder("C:\")

foreach ($subfolder in $folder.SubFolders)
{
If ($subfolder.Size -eq 0)
{

remove-item $subfolder.Path -Verbose

}

}

--
Richard Siddaway
Please note that all scripts are supplied "as is" and with no warranty
Blog: http://richardsiddaway.spaces.live.com/
PowerShell User Group: http://www.get-psuguk.org.uk

"brhessel" wrote:

On Tuesday, June 26, 2007 8:28 PM
Kiron wrote:

If you want to include hidden and read-only empty folders include the -force
If you want to include hidden and read-only empty folders include the -force
parameter:

To see if a folder is empty:

!(gci <path> -fo)

To remove all empty folders under <path>:

ri (gci <path> -r -fo | ? {$_.PSIsContainer -and !(gci
$_.fullName -fo)}).fullName -fo

--
Kiron

On Wednesday, June 27, 2007 12:30 AM
Kiro wrote:

Scratch my previous answer, I tested it and only worked on the first empty
Scratch my previous answer, I tested it and only worked on the first empty
folder. This one does the job:

To see if a folder is empty:

!(gci <path> -fo)

To remove "all" empty folders under <path>:

foreach($dir in @(gci <path> -r -fo | ? {$_.PSIsContainer -and !(gci
$_.fullName -fo)})) {ri $dir.fullName -fo}

--
Kiron

On Saturday, July 14, 2007 12:47 AM
Ryan Beesley wrote:

RE: Remove empty folders - Kiro

I'm not sure this quite works.

>To see if a folder is empty:
>
>!(gci <path> -fo)
>
>To remove "all" empty folders under <path>:
>
>foreach($dir in @(gci <path> -r -fo | ? {$_.PSIsContainer -and !(gci $_.fullName -fo)})) {ri $dir.fullName -fo}

The problem is that you may have a tree like this

|
|\DIR1
| |\DIR1.1 (empty)
| \DIR1.2 (empty)
\DIR2 (empty)

The above script will remove DIR1.1, DIR1.2, and DIR2, but it will leave DIR1 because when it was checked it wasn't empty, it contained Items DIR1.1 and DIR1.2. With a massively deep tree, this leaves many branches untrimed.

This is what I came up with:

foreach ($dir in @(gci . -r | where {$_.PSIsContainer} | sort -descending fullName)) {ri $dir.fullName | where {!(gci $dir.fullName)}}

First I build a list of all possible directories and I sort it decending so that the parent directory is always after the children in the list. Then I iterate over that list and only remove the directory if it has no children. Since I am working from a list of directories created before I start deleting, this lets me check each directory along the way and should prune everything.

To use, CD to the directory you want to prune, and run the above statement.

On Saturday, July 14, 2007 1:46 AM
RyanBe wrote:

Slight change... the old way kept prompting me...
Slight change... the old way kept prompting me... I relized that I should
have been using an if statement instead of where... try this instead.

foreach ($dir in @(gci . -r | where {$_.PSIsContainer} | sort -descending
fullName)) {if (!(gci $dir.fullName)) {ri $dir.fullName}}

"Ryan Beesley" wrote:

On Saturday, July 14, 2007 10:05 AM
Kiron wrote:

Thanks for catching that and fixing the script.

Thanks for catching that and fixing the script. I am guilty of not testing
_thoroughly_ :)

--
Kiron

Submitted via EggHeadCafe - Software Developer Portal of Choice
WPF Binding Beyond the Limitation of Name Scopes
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorials/aspnet/ef583104-e507-491d-b05f-49faac8854c8/wpf-binding-beyond-the-li.aspx

[Wolfgang Kais]

Hello wammus.

<Wammus> wrote:
> Just for testing I changed the line to:
>
> ForEach ($dir in @(Get-ChildItem . -Recurse | Where {$_.PSIsContainer} |
> Sort -Descending FullName)) {
> If (!(Get-ChildItem $dir.FullName)) {$dir.FullName}}
>
> Now it also displays directories that have the (special) characters [
> and ] in them (which are not empty at all)
>
> When I change the last part of the command back to {Remove-Item
> $dir.fullName -WhatIf} it only displays the empty folders and not the
> folders that have [ and/or ] in the name.
>
> Any solution/suggestion?

Since you did not supply a parameter name when using Remove-Item,
$dir.fullName is used as value of the -Path parameter which supports
wildcards. So, if the directory name was c:\what[ever], the CmdLet would
try to find an item whose name starts with c:\what and then ends with
one of the letters e, v or r. Try the -LiteralPath parameter instead:
Remove-Item -LiteralPath $dir.fullName -WhatIf

--
Kind regards,
Wolfgang Kais