replace names of all directiories and files in PS

Question

I want to replace all space characters into "_" in names of all subfolders and files. Unfortunately when I type:

Get-ChildItem -recurse -name | ForEach-Object { Rename-Item $_ $_.replace(" ","_") }

Error message:

Rename-Item : Source and destination path must be different. At line:1 char:60 + Get-ChildItem -recurse -name | ForEach-Object { Rename-Item <<<< $_ $.replace(" ","") } + CategoryInfo : WriteError: (PATH_HERE) [Rename-Item], IOException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RenameItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand

How I should improve this short code?

Answer 1

Don't use the Name switch, it outputs only the names of the objects, not their full path. Try this:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse | `
   Where-Object {$_.Name -match ' '} | `
     Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name -replace ' ','_' }

Answer 2

The issue here is that if there is no space in the file name the name does not change. This is not supported by Rename-Item. You should use Move-Item instead:

Get-ChildItem -recurse -name | ForEach-Object { Move-Item $_ $_.replace(" ", "_") }

Additionally, in your answer you missed the underscore in $_.replace(...) plus you where replacing spaces with an empty string. Included this in my answer.

Answer 3

Adding a filter worked for me:

Get-ChildItem C:\path-to-directory -Recurse -Filter *foo* | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -replace 'foo', 'bar'} -verbose