Removing Unwanted Files with PowerShell

September 28, 2014

Sometimes after using gVim on Windows, I end up with temporary files.

.\content\5-minute-intro-to-gradle.markdown
.\content\5-minute-intro-to-gradle.markdown~
.\content\command-line-diff-for-windows.markdown
.\content\command-line-diff-for-windows.markdown~

I’d really like to remove all the files in .\content that end in ~. If find on Unix immediately comes to mind, PowerShell’s Get-ChildItem will feel right at home.

Get-ChildItem -Path .\content -Filter *~ -File | Remove-Item

Our directory is free from unwanted files!

Note It’s also possible to directly use the Remove-Item command, but by using Get-ChildItem we can safely fine-tune our query before piping it to the destructive Remove-Item.


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Written by @sghill, who works on build, automated change, and continuous integration systems.