See https://blog.neilsabol.site/post/deleting-specific-log-files-by-extension-older-than-days/. This Pester snippet demonstrates the use of -Path vs. -LiteralPath with the Get-ChildItem PowerShell cmdlet. Prerequisites: Pester 5+ (Install-Module -Name Pester -Force -SkipPublisherCheck), PowerShell 5+, Windows 2012+. Once the prerequisites are in…

Get-ChildItem-Path.Tests.ps1

# ###############################
# Get-ChildItem-Path.Tests.ps1
# https://blog.neilsabol.site/post/deleting-specific-log-files-by-extension-older-than-days/
# Neil Sabol
# neil.sabol@gmail.com
# ###############################

# Define test parameters
$script:testPath = "C:\Temp"
$script:testLiteralPath = "\\?\C:\Temp"
$script:testPathDepth = 6
$script:testPathDirNameLength = 52
$script:testPathFileCount = 10
$script:testPathFileNameLength = 255

# Print test parameters
write-host ""
write-host "Directory Path Length: $($testPathDepth*$testPathDirNameLength)"
write-host "File Name Length: $($testPathFileNameLength)"
write-host "Total Length: $($testPathDepth*$testPathDirNameLength+$testPathFileNameLength)"
write-host ""

# Begin Pester tests
Describe 'Get-ChildItem Path Testing' {
    BeforeAll {
        # Create the test path if it does not exist
        If(-Not (Test-Path "$testPath")) { New-Item -Path "$testPath" -ItemType "Directory" }
        
        # Create a long directory path
        for($i=0;$i -lt $testPathDepth;$i++) {
            $longPath += "$(-join (((65..90) + (97..122)) * 100 | Get-Random -Count $testPathDirNameLength | % {[char]$_}))\"
        }
        New-Item -Path "$testLiteralPath" -Name "$longPath" -ItemType "Directory" -Force
        
        # Get the root of the long path
        $rootTestDirectory = $longPath[0..$($testPathDirNameLength-1)] -join ""

        # Create some test files under the long path
        for($i=0;$i -lt $testPathFileCount;$i++) {
            New-Item -Path "$testLiteralPath\$longPath" -Name "$(-join ((48..57) * 100 | Get-Random -Count $($testPathFileNameLength-4) | % {[char]$_})).txt" -ItemType "File" -Value "$(-join ((65..90) + (97..122) | Get-Random -Count 40 | % {[char]$_}))" -Force
        }
    }
    Context "Get-ChildItem with -Path" {
        It 'Should throw exception when listing long path contents' {
            { Get-ChildItem -Path "$testPath\$rootTestDirectory" -Recurse -ErrorAction Stop | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*.txt' } } | Should -Throw
        }

        It 'Should throw exception when deleting all files under a long path' {
            { Get-ChildItem -Path "$testPath\$rootTestDirectory" -Recurse -ErrorAction Stop | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*.txt' } | Remove-Item } | Should -Throw
        }
    }
    Context "Get-ChildItem with -LiteralPath" {
        It 'Should NOT throw exception when listing long path contents' {
            { Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath "$testLiteralPath\$rootTestDirectory" -Recurse -ErrorAction Stop | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*.txt' } } | Should -Not -Throw
        }

        It 'Should NOT throw exception when deleting all files under a long path' {
            { Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath "$testLiteralPath\$rootTestDirectory" -Recurse -ErrorAction Stop | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*.txt' } | Remove-Item -ErrorAction Stop } | Should -Not -Throw
        }
        It "Should delete all files under a long path" {
            Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath "$testLiteralPath\$rootTestDirectory" -Recurse -ErrorAction Stop | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*.txt' } | Measure-Object -ErrorAction Stop | select -ExpandProperty Count | Should -Be 0
        }
    }
    AfterAll {
        # Clean up
        Remove-Item -Path "$script:testLiteralPath\$rootTestDirectory" -Recurse -Force
    }
}