How to recursively search for a file in a remote server

Question

I am using dir \\pwdf1280\rep\"*.txt" /S to search for all the txt files in the folder rep. I used the /S argument to search for the same in the sub directories, but the problem is the command runs forever. I am basically writing a perl script which has to find these files along with their timestamp.

Is there any other approach to solve this, or can I improve on the above command?

The problem is the dir command I mentioned above runs forever and does not display files present in rep's sub directories. It just displays files present in rep directory. I want to search for a file in the rep's sub directories.

Answer 1

One way that might speed the process up is to run the directory search on the remote machine using PowerShell.

C:\src\powershell> type .\rc001.ps1
Invoke-Command `
    -ComputerName 'pwdf1280' `
    -Command { Get-ChildItem '\\pwdf1280\rep' -Recurse -Filter '*.txt' } |
    ForEach-Object { $_.FullName }

Then, from a cmd script run:

C:\src\powershell> powershell -NoProfile -File .\rc001.ps1

Alternatives might be to run the dir command remotely using psexec from SysInternals or plink from PuTTY.