jedatu: The Blog

I really think there is a lot of potential wrapped up in PowerShell, but since I have rarely used Linux and rarely write batch files, I have hard time getting my head around how to use PowerShell.

I do know that I hate the limitations of batch files and have thought about using Ruby and now PowerShell instead. I installed ShinyPower to help me navigate the PowerShell help. I read some tutorials. Gradually, I was getting ready to do something.

Well, today I finally wrote my first PowerShell code and this is why.

I use a fantastic program called TimeSnapper. It saves an image of my screen at a pre-determined interval--in my case every 5 minutes. This helps me keep track of what I have been working on. Well, I copied the image files to a new location and the CreateDate changed. This meant that TimeSnapper thought all the images were captured at the same time each day. Ugh. Then I thought, "this sounds like a job for PowerShell"

After a little exploration I came up with a script to fix the problem with the files.

ls | foreach { $_.CreationTime = $_.LastWriteTime }

Breakdown:
Step1 [ ls ] Call the ls alias to list the files in a given directory.
Step2 [ | ] Pipe the resulting list of FileObjectInfo objects to a for each statement
Step3 [ foreach { ] Begin the for each
Step4 [ $_ ] Reference the current object in the collection
Step5 [ .CreationTime = $_.LastWriteTime ] Set the CreationTime equal to the LastWriteTime
Step6 [ } ] End the for each

In the end, it's a pretty simple one-line script, but it helped me make some progress understanding the PowerShell syntax.

Here's some other cool PowerShell tricks. "Can your programming language do this?"