PowerShell: Path Tutorial

Path parameter

Many commands have a -Path parameter.

Path parameter is a positional parameter and named parameter. That means, it can be first arg, or with -path value anywhere.

# list files of a given path
dir "c:/Program Files/"

# or
dir -Path "c:/Program Files/"

Path Value is String Type

• Path value is String type.
• Normally, quote can be omitted, but if path contains space, it must be quoted.
• Double quoted string goes thru String Expansion
• To prevent string expansion, use single quote. (but Path Expansion is still done. use -LiteralPath to prevent that.)

# use quote when path contains space
dir "c:/Program Files/"

# path value of double quoted string
# or
# no quote
# goes thru string expansion
# watch out for dollar sign in it

$xx = " Files"
dir c:/Program$xx/

# same as
dir "c:/Program Files/"

Path Expansion

Path value are expanded by path expansion. (even for single quoted path.)

Path value can contain abbrev, such as beginning ~ to mean $home, and String Wildcards such as * for any characters.

dir '~/Documents/'

# same as
dir "$home/Documents/"

Note: $home is one of the pre-defined variable. [see PowerShell: Automatic Variables]

Use parameter -LiteralPath if you do not want Path Expansion.

[see PowerShell: Path Expansion (get fullpath)]

💡 Tip: LiteralPath with Single Quote

to prevent any path expansion, use -LiteralPath with single quote.

Default Path Value

If Path parameter is omitted, default value is current dir (except the cd command, which default to $home).

dir

# same as
dir .

# same as
dir (Get-Location)

Relative Path, Full Path

The -Path parameter accepts both full path or relative path.

cd $home

dir "Documents"
# same as
dir "$home/Documents/"

Path separator

Path separator is the backslash, but slash is also supported. They can be mixed.

All the following works the same:

• "c:/Program Files/Windows Defender/"
• "c:\Program Files\Windows Defender\"
• "c:/Program Files\Windows Defender/"

single dot, double dots

• Single dot . means the current dir.
• Double dot .. means the parent dir.

For example:

• cd .. means go up one dir
• cd ../.. means go up two dirs

current dir

Get-Location (alias gl, pwd) return the current dir.

Path expansion

• PowerShell: Path Expansion (get fullpath)

LiteralPath

The -LiteralPath parameter lets you input a path without Path Expansion . (double quoted string still go tru string expansion. [see PowerShell: String])

# list children of a dir named math* as is
dir -LiteralPath "math*"