Need windows batch command one-liner to remove folders by name, not by date.time using powershell if-CodePudding

Need help with command like, one-liner, powershell to remove folders I'm trying to find an elegant way to remove folders by folder name which reflects the date but I cannot rely on the file/folder date meta-data attributes.

Here's the problem I'm trying to solve: I have a folder in which there are archived call recordings for each day the recording system creates folders and fills them with call recordings, a folder for each day named like format MM_dd_yyyy. I need to remove all but the last 7 folders. But, I cannot rely on the creation/modified date on the file. That would be much easier with just powershell. So I MUST, unfortunately, remove the folders by testing the file name against the dates of the folders that I need to retain with same format (MM_dd_yyyy). I can get the list of folder names that are to be retained base on the previous 6 days with the following Windows command line:

c:\>powershell $d0=(Get-Date).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy'); $d1=(Get-Date).AddDays(-1).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy'); $d2=(Get-Date).AddDays(-2).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy'); $d3=(Get-Date).AddDays(-3).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy'); $d4=(Get-Date).AddDays(-4).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy'); $d5=(Get-Date).AddDays(-5).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy'); $d6=(Get-Date).AddDays(-6).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy'); $d0; $d1; $d2; $d3; $d4; $d5; $d6

NOTE: I need to keep this in a command one-liner and cannot use PS1 power shell script because of corporate and domain enforced security limitations

This produces the folder names to be retained as listed below (ran on 20 NOV 2021 to retain last 7 days).

The intention would be to remove any folder names that were like 11_13_2021, 11_12_2021... etc.

I can get away with running nested FOR loops in a Windows bat file to try and hack this together but I'm trying to find a more simple, readable and elegant one-liner that will let me do something like the following: powershell $d=(Get-Date).AddDays(-7).ToString('MM-dd-yyyy'); and then some magic powershell stuff to remove any folder that doesn't match any of those that are to be retained.

If I had a way to provide the folder name (MM_dd_yyyy) to the (get-date).AddDays(-6) powershell command and have it return a boolean yes or no, that would be something closer to what I'm looking for. I've been reading and you tubing and pulling hairs out but so far I'm learning but mostly making a mess of it. Any ideas are most welcome.

I'm likely approaching this all wrong. The constraints are:

Given a list of folders with naming format MM_dd_yyyy, I need to remove/delete all that are not within the last week of days.

I cannot run powershell scripts .ps1 I can run windows bat or cmd files with for loops and such I cannot rely on the folder of files date/time meta attributes, some data in the folders may have create/write/modified dates that are not in line with the folder name. I must rely on the folder name (MM_dd-yyyy) to remove the folders.

CodePudding user response：

The PowerShell code for this would be:

Get-ChildItem -Path 'RootPath\Where\The\Folders\To\Delete\Are\Found' -Filter '*_*_*' -Directory |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -match '\d{2}_\d{2}_\d{4}' } |                   # filter some more using regex -match
    Sort-Object { [datetime]::ParseExact($_.Name, 'MM_dd_yyyy', $null) } |  # sort by date
    Select-Object -SkipLast 7 |                                             # skip the newest 7 folders
    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force                                             # remove the rest

To play it safe, add -WhatIf to the final Remove-Item command. By doing that, the code does not actually delete anything, but show in the console what would be deleted. If you are satisfied that is correct, then remove -WhatIf to actually remove those folders.

As Olaf already commented, don't think using one-line code would be best, because what you'll end up with is code that isn't readable anymore and where mistakes are extremely hard to find. There is no penalty whatsoever for multiline code, in fact it is THE way to go!