After hitting two long about_ topics back to back ( and ) I decided to randomly grab another: Get-Item. Get-Item is actually a useful cmdlet. Unlike Get-Content, which we will cover later, Get-Item, "Gets the item at the specified location." Ummm, okay. Clear as mud. Lets look at some examples to see perhaps what this really means. First, a file system grab (abbreviated for readability):
In both cases, Get-Item is the focused on accessing the "info" object. Key here is instance, not, static. The consequence of this can be seen in the members returned on each object. Taking the same example above, I look at my directory as an Directory object and a DirectoryInfo object.
Approach 1: DirectoryInfo:
As indicated by the Get-Member cmdlet results it returns a System.IO.DirectoryInfo object. Ah, so, thats what it means. Comparing the two objects, System.IO.Directory and System.IO.DirectoryInfo helps clarify what Get-item does. As noted at MSDN, Directory objects,PS C:Userswsteele> Get-item .Directory: C:UsersMode LastWriteTime Length Name---- ------------- ------ ----d---- 7/26/2012 3:13 PM wsteelePS C:Userswsteele> Get-item . | Get-MemberTypeName: System.IO.DirectoryInfoName MemberType Definition---- ---------- ----------Mode CodeProperty System.String Mode{get=Mode;}Create Method void Create(), void Create(System.Security.AccessControl.DirectorySecurity directorySec......Root Property System.IO.DirectoryInfo Root {get;}BaseName ScriptProperty System.Object BaseName {get=$this.Name;}
Exposes static methods for creating, moving, and enumerating through directories and subdirectories. This class cannot be inherited.DirectoryInfo objects, on the other hand,
Exposes instance methods for creating, moving, and enumerating through directories and subdirectories. This class cannot be inherited.As a side note, it does the same thing with FileInfo and File objects only, the File/FileInfo objects also "aids in the creation of FileStream objects".
In both cases, Get-Item is the focused on accessing the "info" object. Key here is instance, not, static. The consequence of this can be seen in the members returned on each object. Taking the same example above, I look at my directory as an Directory object and a DirectoryInfo object.
Approach 1: DirectoryInfo:
[System.IO.DirectoryInfo]C:userswsteele |gm | ft name, membertype-AutoSize
Name MemberType
---- ----------
Mode CodeProperty
Create Method
CreateObjRef Method
CreateSubdirectory Method
Delete Method
EnumerateDirectories Method
EnumerateFiles Method
EnumerateFileSystemInfos Method
Equals Method
GetAccessControl Method
GetDirectories Method
GetFiles Method
GetFileSystemInfos Method
GetHashCode Method
GetLifetimeService Method
GetObjectData Method
GetType Method
InitializeLifetimeService Method
MoveTo Method
Refresh Method
SetAccessControl Method
ToString Method
Attributes Property
CreationTime Property
CreationTimeUtc Property
Exists Property
Extension Property
FullName Property
LastAccessTime Property
LastAccessTimeUtc Property
LastWriteTime Property
LastWriteTimeUtc Property
Name Property
Parent Property
Root
