[PS] Get-ChildItem and Get-ChildItem -Name have different ordering - Bug this?

The command
Get-ChildItem
and
Get-ChildItem -Name
appear to use different ordering for output. Although we shouldn't make
assumptions about enumeration order anyway, this looks like it could be
confusing to entry-level users. Should I bug it?

 

Alex,

The behaviour I see with

get-childitem *.txt

and

get-childitem *.txt -Name

is what I would expect to see according to the description of the Name
parameter in the Help files. It says that when -Name is used only the
name of the object is passed along the pipeline. So the default
formatter only has the name to display when -Name is specified, if I
understand things correctly.

What I'm not immediately sure about is why I would really want a -Name
parameter with get-childitem.

Andrew Watt MVP

 

Probably because it is faster than getting System.IO.FileSystemInfo objects?
If you ony need the name for a certain task just use -Name to speed it up.

 

The "name" of this parameter ought to be "-NameOnly" or something like that
to indicate it is a switch. When I see -Name I feel like I need to provide
an argument for the parameter.

 

+1

Andrew Watt MVP

 

+2

I think, anyway.

This is an odd situation. Name and Path are almost always input descriptors.
In this case, it's used as an in-command output filter.

 

Please file this on MS Connect, and vote if in agreement.

The -Name parameter is there because it is often significantly more
efficient to get the names of items, rather than just the items themselves.

--
Lee Holmes [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Development
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

Lee - are you talking about bugging the original issue - the order in which
output is displayed varying - or the question about the name of
parameter -Name?

 

Anything you would like to change

--
Lee Holmes [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Development
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

To give you an explanation about why they differ, though it is because of
the way that we get directory listings.

In essense Get-ChildItem (for the FileSystem) does:
- [System.IO.Directory]::GetFiles("c:\temp")
- [System.IO.Directory]::GetDirectories("c:\temp")

When you specify the name parameter, we do:
- [System.IO.Directory]::GetDirectories("c:\temp")
- [System.IO.Directory]::GetFiles("c:\temp")

--
Lee Holmes [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Development
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

Ahh. Is there a specific intent behind the reversal?

 

https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?SiteID=99&FeedbackID=77402
on Connect.

Andrew Watt MVP

 

That's what I'm wondering also.

 

Not that I'm aware of.

--
Lee Holmes [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Development
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?SiteID=99&FeedbackID=78688