Delete directory regardless of 260 char limit

Question

I'm writing a simple script to delete USMT migration folders after a certain amount of days:

## Server List ##
$servers = "Delorean","Adelaide","Brisbane","Melbourne","Newcastle","Perth"

## Number of days (-3 is over three days ago) ##
$days = -3

$timelimit = (Get-Date).AddDays($days)

foreach ($server in $servers)
{
    $deletedusers = @()
    $folders = Get-ChildItem \\$server\USMT$ | where {$_.psiscontainer}
    write-host "Checking server : " $server
    foreach ($folder in $folders) 
    {
        If ($folder.LastWriteTime -lt $timelimit -And $folder -ne $null)
        {
            $deletedusers += $folder
            Remove-Item -recurse -force $folder.fullname
        }
    }
        write-host "Users deleted : " $deletedusers
        write-host
}

However I keep hitting the dreaded Remove-Item : The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260 characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters.

I've been looking at workarounds and alternatives but they all revolve around me caring what is in the folder.

I was hoping for a more simple solution as I don't really care about the folder contents if it is marked for deletion.

Is there any native Powershell cmdlet other than Remove-Item -recurse that can accomplish what I'm after?

Answer 1

There is one workaround that uses Experimental.IO from Base Class Libraries project. You can find it over on poshcode, or download from author's blog. 260 limitation is derived from .NET, so it's either this, or using tools that do not depend on .NET (like cmd /c dir, as @Bill suggested).

Answer 2

PowerShell can easily be used with AlphaFS.dll to do actual file I/O stuff without the PATH TOO LONG hassle.

For example:

Import-Module <path-to-AlphaFS.dll>

[Alphaleonis.Win32.Filesystem.Directory]::Delete($path, $True)

Please see at Codeplex: https://alphafs.codeplex.com/ for this .NET project.

Answer 3

Just for completeness, I have come across this a few more times and have used a combination of both 'subst' and 'New-PSDrive' to work around it in various situations.

Not exactly a solution, but if anyone is looking for alternatives this might help.

Subst seems very sensitive to which type of program you are using to access the files, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, seems to be the same with New-PSDrive.

Answer 4

This answer on SuperUser solved it for me: https://superuser.com/a/274224/85532

Cmd /C "rmdir /S /Q $myDir"

Answer 5

I learnt a trick a while ago that often works to get around long file path issues. Apparently when using some Windows API's certain functions will flow through legacy code that can't handle long file names. However if you format your paths in a particular way, the legacy code is avoided. The trick that solves this problem is to reference paths using the "\\?\" prefix. It should be noted that not all API's support this but in this particular case it worked for me, see my example below:

The following example fails:

PS D:\> get-childitem -path "D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -hidden


Directory: D:\System Volume Information\dfsr


Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a-hs        10/09/2014  11:10 PM     834424 FileIDTable_2
-a-hs        10/09/2014   8:43 PM    3211264 SimilarityTable_2

PS D:\> Remove-Item -Path "D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -recurse -force
Remove-Item : The specified path, file name, or both are too long. The fully qualified file name must be less than 260
characters, and the directory name must be less than 248 characters.
At line:1 char:1
+ Remove-Item -Path "D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -recurse -force
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : WriteError: (D:\System Volume Information\dfsr:String) [Remove-Item], PathTooLongExcepti
on
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RemoveItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand

PS D:\>

However, prefixing the path with "\\?\" makes the command work successfully:

PS D:\> Remove-Item -Path "\\?\D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -recurse -force
PS D:\> get-childitem -path "D:\System Volume Information\dfsr" -hidden
PS D:\>