How to Delete Files Matching Pattern in PowerShell

To delete files matching patterns in PowerShell, you can use the Get-ChildItem and Remove-Item cmdlets.

The following methods can be used to retrieve all files that match the patterns and delete all of them.

Method 1: Delete file matching pattern in PowerShell

# specify the directory path
$directoryPath  = "C:\temp\log\"

# specify the pattern
$pattern = "*sys_*"

# Retrieve file that matches pattern and remove them
Get-ChildItem -Path $directoryPath -Filter $pattern -File -Recurse -Force | Remove-Item -Force

This example deletes files that match the pattern specified in the $pattern.

Method 2: Delete all files matching the pattern in PowerShell

# specify the directory path
$directoryPath  = "C:\temp\log\"

# specify the pattern
$pattern = "*sys_*"

# Retrieve file that matches pattern and remove them
 Get-ChildItem -Path $directoryPath | Where {$_.Name -match "sys_*"} | Remove-Item -Force

This example removes all files matching pattern $pattern.

The following examples show how to use these methods.

Delete Files Matching Pattern in PowerShell

To delete all files matching a pattern in PowerShell, use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to retrieve the list of files that match the patterns and pipe them to the Remove-Item cmdlet for deleting all of the files that match the pattern.

The following PowerShell script shows how to do it with syntax.

# specify the directory path
$directoryPath  = "C:\temp\log\"

# specify the pattern
$pattern = "*sys_*"

# Retrieve file that matches pattern and remove them
Get-ChildItem -Path $directoryPath -Filter $pattern -File -Recurse -Force | Remove-Item -Force

Output:

PowerShell delete all files matching pattern — PowerShell deletes all files matching the pattern

In this example, the $directoryPath variable stores the directory path. The $pattern variable stores the pattern “*sys_*“.

The Get-ChildItem cmdlet retrieves the list of files from the specified $directoryPath that matches the pattern $pattern. It matches the files having “*sys_*” in their file name, filters those files, and pipes them to the Remove-Item cmdlet.

The Remove-Item cmdlet deletes all files matching a certain pattern.

Delete All files Matching the Pattern in the PowerShell

Another way to delete all files matching the pattern in PowerShell is using the Get-ChildItem cmdlet along with the Where condition to check the matching pattern and filter the files for deletion by the Remove-Item cmdlet.

The following PowerShell script shows how to do it with syntax.

# specify the directory path
$directoryPath  = "C:\temp\log\"

# Retrieve file that matches pattern and remove them
 Get-ChildItem -Path $directoryPath | Where {$_.Name -match "*sys_*"} | Remove-Item -Force

Output:

PowerShell delete all files matching pattern with where condition

In the above PowerShell script, the Get-ChildItem cmdlet retrieves the list of files from the specified directory path $directoryPath and pipes them to the Where condition.

The Where condition checks if the name of the file matches with the specified patterns “*sys_*” and pipes the files to the Remove-Item cmdlet. The Remove-Item command deletes all files that contain “*sys*” in the file name.

Conclusion

I hope the above article on how to delete files matching patterns in PowerShell is helpful to you.

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