Powershell - search folder hierarchy for names matching a pattern from a file and copy them.

So I had a request this week for a quick script that could search a folder structure for filenames for patterns that matched strings inside of a text file and then copy them to another folder. All the files had long complicated filenames so they needed an easy way to search through them. If it was *nix I'd just use Perl but since it was for Windows Powershell's the right way to go.

the text file contained strings like

00xy569e

TRs3002010

00xy589f

00xy589s

# Gnawgnu - 2/2011

# Searches filenames in a folder structure for

# patterns provided via text file

# Files to be Searched.

$srcFolder = "D:\filestobesearched"

# Destination of file copy.

$dest = "d:\CopyMatchesHere"

# List of patterns to look for.

$srcFile = "d:\matchlist.txt"

# Read in matchlist from text file.

$matchlist = Get-Content $srcFile

foreach ($match in $matchlist) {

$a = gci -r -i *$match* $srcFolder

foreach ($c in $a) {

# Change to move-item if needed

copy-item $c $dest

}

}