I am getting an error when running a PowerShell script. It is stating
The item at Microsoft.Powershell.Core\FileSystem::\[path to directory] has children and the Recurse parameter was not specified.
In my PowerShell script I do have it specified. Is it in the wrong location?
# Add CmdletBinding to support -Verbose and -WhatIf [CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess=$True)] param ( # Mandatory parameter including a test that the folder exists [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [ValidateScript({Test-Path $_ -PathType 'Container'})] [string] $Path, # Optional parameter with a default of 60 [int] $Age = 60 ) # Identify the items, and loop around each one Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Force | where {$_.lastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).addDays(-$Age)} | ForEach-Object { # display what is happening Write-Verbose "Deleting $_ [$($_.lastWriteTime)]" # delete the item (whatif will do a dry run) $_ | Remove-Item } 1 Answer
The problem is here:
$_ | Remove-Item While you've specified -Recurse and -Force on Get-ChildItem, that doesn't affect the later Remove-Item invocation. On Get-ChildItem, -Force just includes hidden and system items.
Normally, this would suppress the confirmation, and for me it does:
$_ | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force Given that it's apparently still asking you for confirmation, it seems you have a $ConfirmPreference other than High. To get around that, you can add -Confirm:$false to the removal line to say "definitely do not ask for confirmation", or you can add this line further up in your cmdlet:
$ConfirmPreference = 'High' 
