Check if a file exists or not in Windows PowerShell

Question

I have this script which compares files in two areas of the disk and copies the latest file over the one with the older modified date     filestowatch get-content C  H files-to-watch txt   adminFiles dir C  H admin admin -recurse        fn    FullName    filestowatch       fn contains       -contains  True    userFiles dir C  H user user -recurse        fn    FullName    filestowatch       fn contains       -contains  True   foreach  userfile in  userFiles            exactadminfile   adminfiles         Name -eq  userfile Name   Select -First 1        filetext1  System IO File   ReadAllText  exactadminfile FullName         filetext2  System IO File   ReadAllText  userfile FullName         equal    filetext1 -ceq  filetext2   case sensitive comparison        if   equal             Write-Host  Checking         userfile FullName          continue                   if  exactadminfile LastWriteTime -gt  userfile LastWriteTime                   Write-Host  Checking         userfile FullName    gt  gt  user           Copy-Item -Path  exactadminfile FullName -Destination  userfile FullName -Force                 else                    Write-Host  Checking         userfile FullName    gt  gt  admin            Copy-Item -Path  userfile FullName -Destination  exactadminfile FullName -Force              Here is the format of files-to-watch txt  content less  light less content less  mixins less content less  variables less content font-awesome variables less content font-awesome mixins less content font-awesome path less content font-awesome core less   I would like to modify this so that it avoids doing this if the file does not exist in both areas and prints a warning message   Can someone tell me how I can check if a file exists using PowerShell

User · Answer

The standard way to see if a file exists is with the Test-Path cmdlet   Test-Path -path  filename

User · Answer

You want to use Test-Path  Test-Path  lt path to file gt  -PathType Leaf

User · Answer

You can use the Test-Path cmd-let  So something like     if   Test-Path  oldLocation   -and   Test-Path  newLocation          Write-Host   file doesn t exist in both locations

User · Answer

cls   exactadminfile    C  temp files admin   First folder to check the file   userfile    C  temp files user   Second folder to check the file   filenames Get-Content  C  temp files files-to-watch txt   Reading the names of the files to test the existance in one of the above locations  foreach   filename in  filenames      if    Test-Path  exactadminfile  filename  -and   Test-Path  userfile  filename      if the file is not there in either of the folder     Write-Warning   filename absent from both locations      else       Write-Host    filename  File is there in one or both Locations   if file exists there at both locations or at least in one location

User · Answer

Test-Path may give odd answer  E g   Test-Path c  temp  -PathType leaf  gives false  but  Test-Path c  temp  -PathType leaf  gives true  Sad

User · Answer

Use Test-Path   if    Test-Path  exactadminfile  -and   Test-Path  userfile       Write-Warning   userFile absent from both locations      Placing the above code in your ForEach loop should do what you want

User · Answer

Just to offer the alternative to the Test-Path cmdlet  since nobody mentioned it     System IO File   Exists  path    Does  almost  the same thing as   Test-Path  path -PathType Leaf   except no support for wildcard characters

[powershell] Check if a file exists or not in Windows PowerShell?

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