SAPIEN Solutions

One of the last tasks for the Active Directory Powershell book was to assemble all the script samples. When the book is available you’ll be able to download a zip file from SAPIENPress.com. One thing I wanted to do was to use the file time stamp as a versioning tool.

This is pretty easy to do by modifying the CreationTime property among others. I put together a simple function called Touch-File. The function takes a filename and datetime as parameters. Even though the function will likely be used in a pipeline, I wanted to add some code to verify the file exists.

$file=Get-Item $path -ea “silentlycontinue”

By setting the -errorAction parameter to silentlyContinue, PowerShell will continue in the event the file doesn’t exist. Then I can use an If statement to see if $file has a value.

if ($file) {
        Write-Host “Touching $path” -foregroundcolor Green

Once I know the file exists, I can easily change the CreationTime properties, among others:

$file.CreationTime=$touch

Here’s a script I used to update all my AD scripts that puts this function to work.

   1: #Touch-File.ps1

   2:  

   3: Function Touch-File {

   4:     Param([string]$path=$(Throw "You must specify the name of a file"),

   5:           [datetime]$touch=(Get-Date)

   6:           ) 

   7:  

   8:     #properties to change

   9:  

  10:     [datetime]$UTCTime=$touch.ToUniversalTime()

  11:     

  12:     $file=Get-Item $path -ea "silentlycontinue"

  13:     if ($file) {

  14:         Write-Host "Touching $path" -foregroundcolor Green

  15:         $file.CreationTime=$touch

  16:         $file.CreationTimeUtc=$UTCTime

  17:         $file.LastAccessTime=$touch

  18:         $file.LastAccessTimeUtc=$UTCTime

  19:         $file.LastWriteTime=$touch

  20:         $file.LastWriteTimeUtc=$UTCTime

  21:     }

  22:     else {

  23:         Write-Warning "Failed to find $path"

  24:         

  25:     }

  26:  

  27: }

  28:  

  29: dir c:\scripts\posh\ad\*.ps1 | foreach {

  30:   Touch-File $_ "8/1/2008 01:00:00"

  31:   }

Every file in C:\scripts\posh\ad is sent to the Touch-File function that sets the file date to “8/1/2008 01:00:00″. Not sure if you have a need for a function like this but I like to share.

Technorati Tags: File, powershell, scripting, Touch

Tags: File, powershell, scripting, Touch

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Books and Training, Windows PowerShell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.