Powershell: given a string, how can I tell what type of path I am dealing with?

Question

For instance, I can type gci hkcu: and get a list of registry entries back, or I could type gci c:\ and get a directory listing.

Assuming $list holds the result of one of these queries, how can I tell what I'm dealing with?

I could, of course, just perform something like $list[0].GetType() and parse the result, but that's not very robust, and besides, what would I do with an empty list? (Which means I'm probably asking the wrong question, since I think I need to know the answer before I actually call gci.)

moswald · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-08 00:39:38Z

4

While trying to code around the issue, I stumbled upon the answer:

(Get-ItemProperty $path).PSProvider.Name

This will return one of the providers listed in Get-PSProvider, and they are (typically) unchanging.

answered Dec 8, 2011 at 0:39

moswald

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Shay Levy Over a year ago

Assuming $list holds the result of one of these queries: @($list)[0].PSProvider.Name

manojlds · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-08 00:36:06Z

3

You can do the below maybe:

 $path = "HKCU:"
 $qualifier = (split-path $path -Qualifier).Trim(":")
 get-psdrive | ?{ $_.Name -eq $qualifier } | select provider

If the path is relative use resolve-path $path

Also you don't have to use gci on the path. you can just use gi:

(gi hkcu:).gettype()

edited Dec 8, 2011 at 0:36

answered Dec 8, 2011 at 0:26

manojlds

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Comments

Guvante · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-08 00:14:49Z

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The easiest way is to handle what is passed into gci, rather than attempting to handle the output. Then all you have to do is look before the :, or worst case check the "local" directory.

answered Dec 8, 2011 at 0:14

Guvante

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2 Comments

moswald Over a year ago

One issue with this is that this won't work for the following: cd hkcu:; gci.

moswald Over a year ago

Ignore my previous comment, I didn't grok your "worst case" line right away.

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