When renaming a file with PowerShell, how do I handle filenames with "["?

Question

I'm running this PowerShell command:

Get-ChildItem .\tx\*.htm | Rename-Item -NewName {$_.Name -replace '\.htm','.tmp'}

and receive the following error when a filename contains square brackets -- [ and/or ] --, understandable since those have a meaning within the PowerShell syntax.

Rename-Item : Cannot rename because item at
'Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\users\xxxxx\desktop\tx\
Foofoofoofoo_foo_foo_[BAR]_Foofoofoofoo_foofoofoo.htm' does not exist.
At C:\users\xxxxx\desktop\foo002.ps1:59 char:39
+ Get-ChildItem .\tx\*.htm | Rename-Item <<<<  -NewName { $_.Name -replace '\.htm','.tmp' }
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Rename-Item], PSInvalidOperationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand

All the other files in the path have similar names (Phrase_With_Underscores.htm), and are renamed without incident. Anyone have any experience with this and know how to counter it so I can manipulate these files?

shouldn't it be -replace '.htm'?? why is there a "\" in there? — D3vtr0n, Jan 10 '13 at 14:13
@D3vtr0n first argument of `-replace` is a regex value, `\\` is the escape character for regex. That's all ;) — CB., Jan 10 '13 at 14:23

CB. · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-10T16:20:09.387

7

You can workaround using move-item for renaming items using the parameter -LiteralPath.

Is a know bug: Connect (read Keith Hill Comment for: powershell V3 fix this issue)

edited Jan 10 '13 at 16:20

answered Jan 10 '13 at 14:06

CB.

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2

A bug? From Microsoft? Perish the thought! :) – dwwilson66 Jan 10 '13 at 14:10
[system.io.file]::Move($fullname,$newfullname) – D3vtr0n Jan 10 '13 at 14:17
@D3vtr0n `move-item` is more posh :) – CB. Jan 10 '13 at 14:26
3

This was a known bug in PowerShell v1 & v2. It has been fixed in v3 by the addition of the -LiteralPath parameter to Rename-Item. – Keith Hill Jan 10 '13 at 15:59

When renaming a file with PowerShell, how do I handle filenames with "["?

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