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

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 " >> user"
         Copy-Item -Path $exactadminfile.FullName -Destination $userfile.FullName -Force
       }
       else
       {
          Write-Host "Checking != : " $userfile.FullName " >> 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?

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 :(

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."
}

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

Test-Path -path $filename

You want to use Test-Path:

Test-Path <path to file> -PathType Leaf

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

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
  }
}