Copy most recent files from a list of directories

[RRinTetons]

I want to give PowerShell an explicit list of file paths to several directories and have it copy the most recent file found in each directory to a common location.

e.g., given the list

Z:\RTPSQL\DataFileBackups\RTPOne
Z:\Dynamics-GP
Z:\TimeCentre\tc2kdb
Z:\FoodTrak
Z:\FleetMax

I want to get the most recent file out of each of those directories and copy it to another directory named

C:\ForArchive

I have scripts to copy the entire contents of a directory, or to copy an explicit file name from a directory, but not to get the most recent file regardless of its name.

Suggestions?


-
Richard Ray
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

 

[jmeckley]

i don't know the syntax, but the logic would look like this:
for each directory
1. get a list of all files in the directory
2. order files by create date in descending order
3. take the first file
4. copy the file

in c# this is simple enough

new [] {
@"Z:\RTPSQL\DataFileBackups\RTPOne",
@"Z:\Dynamics-GP",
@"Z:\TimeCentre\tc2kdb",
@"Z:\FoodTrak",
@"Z:\FleetMax"
}
.Select(directory => new DirectoryInfo(directory))
.Where(directory => directory.Exists)
.Select(directory => directory
                      .GetFiles()
                      .OrderByDescending(file => file.CreationTime)
                      .FirstOrDefault())
.Where(file => file != null)
.ToList()
.ForEach(file => File.CopyTo(@"C:\ForArchive\")

with PS i'm sure you could somehow pipe for a clean script. something like

@(
"Z:\RTPSQL\DataFileBackups\RTPOne",
"Z:\Dynamics-GP",
"Z:\TimeCentre\tc2kdb",
"Z:\FoodTrak",
"Z:\FleetMax"
)
select-object {get-childitem $_ | sort-object $_.CreationTime -desc | select-object -first 1} | where $_ != null | copy-object $_ "c:\ForArchive\"

Jason Meckley
Programmer

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