PowerShell File Attributes – Get File Attributes

To get file attributes in PowerShell, you can use Get-ChildItem or Get-Item cmdlets. It returns the file attributes or properties available on the specified files.

To get the list of all properties available, use the Get-Member cmdlet. It takes the input from the Get-ChildItem or Get-Item objects and returns the file properties.

In this article, we will discuss how to get file attributes in PowerShell using the Get-ChildItem or Get-Item cmdlet.

Get File Attributes using Get-ChildItem

Use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet in PowerShell to get file items, by default it returns the basic properties like mode, LastWriteTime, and Length Name.

Get-Item -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\get-log.py  

In the above PowerShell script, we have used the Get-ChildItem command which takes the file path as input and returns the file attributes.

PS D:\> Get-Item -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\get-log.py                                                                                                                         

    Directory: D:\LogTest\FTP-02


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
-a----       02-09-2021     11:32           1338 get-log.py


PS D:\>  

Using the Get-Member command, you can get the list of properties available for the file.

Get-Item -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\get-log.py | Get-Member -MemberType Properties

In the above PowerShell script, Get-ChildItem gets the file and passes the file object as input to the Get-Member command.

Get-Member cmdlet uses the MemeberType parameter to get properties on the file.

The output of the above command returns the Properties as given below:

PS D:\> Get-Item -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\get-log.py | Get-Member -MemberType Properties                                                                                     

   TypeName: System.IO.FileInfo

Name              MemberType     Definition
----              ----------     ----------
LinkType          CodeProperty   System.String LinkType{get=GetLinkType;}
Mode              CodeProperty   System.String Mode{get=Mode;}
Target            CodeProperty   System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[[System.String, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]] ...
PSChildName       NoteProperty   string PSChildName=get-log.py
PSDrive           NoteProperty   PSDriveInfo PSDrive=D
PSIsContainer     NoteProperty   bool PSIsContainer=False
PSParentPath      NoteProperty   string PSParentPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::D:\LogTest\FTP-02
PSPath            NoteProperty   string PSPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::D:\LogTest\FTP-02\get-log.py
PSProvider        NoteProperty   ProviderInfo PSProvider=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem
Attributes        Property       System.IO.FileAttributes Attributes {get;set;}
CreationTime      Property       datetime CreationTime {get;set;}
CreationTimeUtc   Property       datetime CreationTimeUtc {get;set;}
Directory         Property       System.IO.DirectoryInfo Directory {get;}
DirectoryName     Property       string DirectoryName {get;}
Exists            Property       bool Exists {get;}
Extension         Property       string Extension {get;}
FullName          Property       string FullName {get;}
IsReadOnly        Property       bool IsReadOnly {get;set;}
LastAccessTime    Property       datetime LastAccessTime {get;set;}
LastAccessTimeUtc Property       datetime LastAccessTimeUtc {get;set;}
LastWriteTime     Property       datetime LastWriteTime {get;set;}
LastWriteTimeUtc  Property       datetime LastWriteTimeUtc {get;set;}
Length            Property       long Length {get;}
Name              Property       string Name {get;}
BaseName          ScriptProperty System.Object BaseName {get=if ($this.Extension.Length -gt 0){$this.Name.Remove($this.Name.Length - $this.Extension.Length)}else{$this....
VersionInfo       ScriptProperty System.Object VersionInfo {get=[System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo($this.FullName);}

To get all file attributes, use the Properties parameter with * (wildcard) and Force parameter.

Get-Item -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\get-log.py | Format-List -Property * -Force  

In the above PowerShell script, Get-ChildItem gets the file object from the specified location and passes it as input to the Format-List cmdlet. It uses -Property * to get all properties.

The output of the above command to retrieve file attributes in PowerShell is:

In the above output, the File has Archive file attributes, the file extension is py, and other relevant information about file creation time, last modified, and directory.

PowerShell Get File Attributes using Get-Item

Using the Get-Item cmdlet in PowerShell, you can retrieve file attributes.

Get-Item -Path D:\LogTest\FTP-02\get-log.py | Format-List -Property * -Force 

In the above PowerShell script, the Get-Item command gets the file item and passes it to the Format-List cmdlet to get all file properties as given below.

Cool Tip: How to export csv with date in file name using PowerShell!

Conclusion

I hope the above article on how to get file attributes using PowerShell Get-ChildItem and Get-Item cmdlets is helpful to you.

Use the Get-Member cmdlet to get information about member types on the item.

You can find more topics about PowerShell Active Directory commands and PowerShell basics on the ShellGeek home page.