DIRing folders in PowerShell

Question

Now that in Powershell dir is just an alias to Get-ChildItem, how can I get a list of just folders?

I've been doing dir /ad (for Attribute Directory) in the command prompt for about 20 years. Is there any way to alias this with parameters in PowerShell?

I see How do I get only directories using Get-ChildItem? over on Stack Overflow but I'm not going to type Get-ChildItem -Recurse | ?{ $_.PSIsContainer } by hand every time. Ideally I'd like dir /ad to alias to that command.

Answer 1

Put a function like this in your profile:

 function d([string]$switch) { if ($switch -eq "d") { Get-ChildItem -Recurse | ?{ $_.PSIsContainer } } elseif ($switch -eq "f") { Get-ChildItem -Recurse | ?{ !$_.PSIsContainer } } else { Get-ChildItem -Recurse } } 

then just use

d d 

You cannot use parameters on aliases, but functions work just the same way. You get use d -d rather than just d d, or you could make directory the default and use just d, the possibilities are endless. You could also pass in the path.

Answer 2

how can I get a list of just folders?

gci -d is only seven keystrokes counting Enter... and is there waiting for you, if you're willing to upgrade your Powershell to v3 or better. :)

gci -d -r if you want recursion.

Edit: Removed the tab keystrokes because they are not necessary.