PowerShell - Renaming a bunch of folders

In my previous post I talked about Organizing my script directory, naming convention, preferences and bottlenecks… Today let’s reorganize some of those script folders.

Renaming a bunch of folders

At my work, all the scripts related to VMware are named ESX--. And I use the same naming convention at home for my own scripts. So let's say I want to rename all those *ESX* folders by VMWARE instead. Something like this:VMWARE--

First, we start by listing the directories which contain “ESX”

PS C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH> Get-ChildItem -Path *ESX* -Directory

    Directory: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH


Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
da---        2013-10-22   9:05 PM            ESX-DATASTORE-MultiPathing_Enforce
da---        2013-10-22   9:05 PM            ESX-HOST-AutoDeploy
da---        2013-10-22   9:04 PM            ESX-HOST-Resources_Report
da---        2013-10-22   9:05 PM            ESX-NETWORK-Migrate_VM
da---        2013-10-22   9:05 PM            ESX-VM-Information_Report
da---        2013-10-22   9:05 PM            ESX-VM-Snapshot_Report
da---        2013-10-22   9:04 PM            FUNCT-ESX-VM-Disable-CopyPaste
da---        2013-10-22   9:04 PM            FUNCT-ESX-VM-Enable-CopyPaste

We take a look at the Help of Rename-Item using ShowWindow, just to make sure we type the right parameters.

PS C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH> Get-Help -Name Rename-Item -ShowWindow

We will need to use thePathand theNewNameparameters to specify the current name(path) and the new name. I end up with the following line, let’s try it using WhatIf switch

PS C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH> Get-ChildItem -Path *ESX* -Directory | ForEach-Object -Process {Rename-item -Path $_.Name -NewName ($_.name -replace "ESX","VMWARE") -WhatIf}

This line can be translated to: Get me all the folder that contains

What if: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-DATAS
TORE-MultiPathing_Enforce Destination: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-DATASTORE-MultiPathing_Enforce".
What if: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-HOST-
AutoDeploy Destination: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-HOST-AutoDeploy".
What if: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-HOST-
Resources_Report Destination: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-HOST-Resources_Report".
What if: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-NETWO
RK-Migrate_VM Destination: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-NETWORK-Migrate_VM".
What if: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-VM-In
formation_Report Destination: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-VM-Information_Report".
What if: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-VM-Sn
apshot_Report Destination: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-VM-Snapshot_Report".
What if: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\FUNCT-ESX
-VM-Disable-CopyPaste Destination: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\FUNCT-VMWARE-VM-Disable-CopyPaste".
What if: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\FUNCT-ESX
-VM-Enable-CopyPaste Destination: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\FUNCT-VMWARE-VM-Enable-CopyPaste".

Looks Good to me :-) ! let’s try using Verbose!

PS C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH> Get-ChildItem -Path *ESX* -Directory | ForEach-Object -Process {Rename-item
-Path $_.Name -NewName ($_.name -replace "ESX","VMWARE") -Verbose}

VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-DATASTORE-MultiPathing_Enforce Destination:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-DATASTORE-MultiPathing_Enforce".
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-HOST-AutoDeploy Destination: C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-HOST-AutoDeploy".
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-HOST-Resources_Report Destination:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-HOST-Resources_Report".
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-NETWORK-Migrate_VM Destination:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-NETWORK-Migrate_VM".
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-VM-Information_Report Destination:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-VM-Information_Report".
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\ESX-VM-Snapshot_Report Destination:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\VMWARE-VM-Snapshot_Report".
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\FUNCT-ESX-VM-Disable-CopyPaste Destination:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\FUNCT-VMWARE-VM-Disable-CopyPaste".
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Rename Directory" on target "Item:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\FUNCT-ESX-VM-Enable-CopyPaste Destination:
C:\LazyWinAdmin\POSH\FUNCT-VMWARE-VM-Enable-CopyPaste".

Awesome! I love PowerShell!!!