powershell - Remove-Item not working when a file name is provided in a variable -

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• how can use object's property in double-quoted string? 4 answers

i curious took me while couldn't figure out

first, ran following script zip files in dir

$entrylist = new-object system.collections.arraylist  get-childitem -path "\\tools-backup.nas\tools-backup\fakes3\rollback\$servername" -erroraction stop | sort -property "lastwritetime" | foreach-object {     if($_.name.contains(".zip")) {             $entrylist.add($_.name) | out-null         }     } 

it showed below:

2016-08-30_21-15-17_server-1.1.20558_client-1.1.20518 - copy - copy.zip 2016-08-30_21-15-17_server-1.1.20558_client-1.1.20518 - copy (2).zip 2016-08-30_21-15-17_server-1.1.20558_client-1.1.20518 - copy (3).zip 2016-08-30_21-15-17_server-1.1.20558_client-1.1.20518 - copy.zip 2016-08-30_21-15-17_server-1.1.20558_client-1.1.20518 - copy (6).zip 2016-08-30_21-15-17_server-1.1.20558_client-1.1.20518 - copy - copy (2).zip 

then tried delete first one(2016-08-30_21-15-17_server-1.1.20558_client-1.1.20518 - copy - copy.zip) remove-item this:

remove-item -path "\\tools-backup.nas\tools-backup\fakes3\rollback\$servername\$entrylist[0]" -erroraction stop  remove-item : specified path, file name, or both long. qualified file name must less 260 characters, , directory name must less 248 characters. @ line:1 char:1 + remove-item -path "\\tools-backup.nas\tools-backup\fakes3\rollback\$s ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     + categoryinfo          : readerror: (\\toolsbackup....lback\autopatch:string) [remove-item], pathtoolongexception + fullyqualifiederrorid : dirioerror,microsoft.powershell.commands.removeitemcommand 

i got path long exception. however, if put file name in "remove-item" instead of passing $entrylist[0], worked

remove-item -path "\\tools-backup.nas\tools-backup\fakes3\rollback\$servername\2016-08-30_21-15-17_server-1.1.20558_client-1.1.20518 - copy (2).zip" -erroraction stop 

your issue using '$entrylist[0]' in quoted string.

run code see how works (or doesn't work)...

$entrylist = new-object system.collections.arraylist $entrylist.add("this entry.")  "broken" # string with: entry.[0] write-output "this string with: $entrylist[0]"  "fixed1" # string with: entry. write-output "this string with: $($entrylist[0])"  # or... "fixed2" # string with: entry. $item = "this string with: {0}" -f $entrylist[0] write-output $item 

you can try like:

remove-item -path "\\tools-backup.nas\tools-backup\fakes3\rollback\$servername\$($entrylist[0])" -erroraction stop 

also, instead of using name, might refactor code use fullname...

$entrylist.add($_.fullname) 

enjoy.