Powershell Commands

Windows PowerShell provides powerful tools for manipulating test data similarly to Linux command-line utilities. Here are six essential PowerShell commands for system administration and file management tasks.

SELECT-STRING

Enables searching for specific text patterns within files. You can search across multiple log files recursively:

Get-ChildItem C:\ -Filter *.log -Recurse | Select-String 'Error'

This finds error entries throughout a directory structure.

GET-CHILDITEM

Retrieves items from specified locations with filtering capabilities. This command helps locate files matching particular naming patterns across directory trees.

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Logs -Filter *.txt -Recurse

GET-CONTENT

Displays file contents while controlling output volume. The command supports parameters like -Tail and -Head to display specific line counts from files.

Get-Content -Path C:\Logs\application.log -Tail 100

Get-Content -Path C:\Logs\application.log -Head 50

GET-LOCATION

Returns the current working directory path, useful for confirming your present location in the file system.

Get-Location

NEW-ITEM

Creates files and directories programmatically. You can create multiple files using looping:

1..4 | ForEach-Object { New-Item -ItemType File -Name "File$_" }

EXPORT-CSV

Converts command output into comma-separated values format for data analysis and reporting purposes.

Get-Process | Export-Csv -Path C:\Output\processes.csv -NoTypeInformation

Further Reading

• PowerShell Cheat Sheet
• Microsoft PowerShell Documentation