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PODelete oldest versions of a directory in PowerShell
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  1. PODelete oldest versions of a directory in PowerShell
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    copied!<p>I have a list of directories which are formatted like version numbers and would like to find the N oldest directories and delete them. For example:</p> <pre><code>/1.2.3.4 /1.2.3.5 /1.2.3.6 </code></pre> <p>I've tried a few things, but I can't quite seem to get where I need to go.</p> <p>My first try was this:</p> <pre><code>ls directory | sort Name | select -first 5 | rm -r </code></pre> <p>However I'm not sure this is going to work in all circumstances, because this will (I presume) do a natural sort. Is that always going to return the correct results?</p> <p>My next thought was that I could use <code>System.Version</code> to do my sorting. So I ended up with this:</p> <pre><code>ls directory | %{[System.Version]$_.Name } | sort | select -first 5 | ??? </code></pre> <p>The problem is that I'm not sure how to tie the directory result to the sorting... What's the best way to do this?</p> <p><code>gci \\directory</code> produces</p> <pre><code>Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d---- 12/19/2011 5:19 PM 1.0.1052.54849 d---- 12/19/2011 5:29 PM 1.0.1053.54850 d---- 12/19/2011 5:36 PM 1.0.1054.54851 d---- 12/20/2011 2:11 PM 1.0.1056.54875 d---- 12/12/2011 10:39 AM 1.0.991.54625 d---- 12/12/2011 12:08 PM 1.0.992.54627 d---- 12/12/2011 12:22 PM 1.0.993.54628 d---- 12/12/2011 1:15 PM 1.0.994.54630 d---- 12/12/2011 2:45 PM 1.0.996.54636 d---- 12/12/2011 3:34 PM 1.0.997.54640 d---- 12/12/2011 3:48 PM 1.0.998.54641 </code></pre> <p><code>gci \\directory | Sort-Object { $_Name -as [Version] }</code> produces</p> <pre><code>Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d---- 12/12/2011 1:15 PM 1.0.994.54630 d---- 12/12/2011 12:22 PM 1.0.993.54628 d---- 12/12/2011 2:45 PM 1.0.996.54636 d---- 12/12/2011 3:48 PM 1.0.998.54641 d---- 12/12/2011 3:34 PM 1.0.997.54640 d---- 12/12/2011 12:08 PM 1.0.992.54627 d---- 12/19/2011 5:29 PM 1.0.1053.54850 d---- 12/19/2011 5:19 PM 1.0.1052.54849 d---- 12/19/2011 5:36 PM 1.0.1054.54851 d---- 12/12/2011 10:39 AM 1.0.991.54625 d---- 12/20/2011 2:11 PM 1.0.1056.54875 </code></pre> <p>Does it matter that this is a network share? I'm confused as to why this isn't working... I did a quick sanity check and doing <code>Array.Sort</code> on versions I've created in a unit test are sorted correctly.</p>
 

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