Powershell Find all empty folders and subfolders in a given Folder name

Question

I´m trying to get a a) list of all empty folders and subfolders if the folder is named "Archiv" b) I´d like to delete all those empty folders. My current approch doesn´t check the subfolders.

It would be also great if the results would be exportet in a .csv =)

$TopDir = 'C:\Users\User\Test'

$DirToFind = 'Archiv'>$EmptyDirList = @(
    Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $TopDir -Directory -Recurse |
        Where-Object {
            #[System.IO.Directory]::GetFileSystemEntries($_.FullName).Count -eq 0
            $_.GetFileSystemInfos().Count -eq 0 -and
            $_.Name -match $DirToFind
            }
        ).FullName

$EmptyDirList

Any ideas how to adjust the code? Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You need to reverse the order in which Get-ChildItem lists the items so you can remove using the deepest nested empty folder first.

$LogFile = 'C:\Users\User\RemovedEmptyFolders.log'
$TopDir  = 'C:\Users\User\Test'

# first get a list of all folders below the $TopDir directory that are named 'Archiv' (FullNames only)
$archiveDirs = (Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $TopDir -Filter 'Archiv' -Recurse -Directory -Force).FullName | 
                # sort on the FullName.Length property in Descending order to get 'deepest-nesting-first' 
                Sort-Object -Property Length -Descending 

# next, remove all empty subfolders in each of the $archiveDirs
$removed = foreach ($dir in $archiveDirs) {
    (Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $dir -Directory -Force) |
    # sort on the FullName.Length property in Descending order to get 'deepest-nesting-first' 
    Sort-Object @{Expression = {$_.FullName.Length}} -Descending | 
    ForEach-Object {
       # if this folder is empty, remove it and output its FullName for the log
       if (@($_.GetFileSystemInfos()).Count -eq 0) { 
           $_.FullName
           Remove-Item -LiteralPath $_.FullName -Force
       }
    }
    # next remove the 'Archiv' folder that is now possibly empty too
    if (@(Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $dir -Force).Count -eq 0) {
        # output this folders fullname and delete
        $dir
        Remove-Item -LiteralPath $dir -Force
    }
}

$removed | Set-Content -Path $LogFile -PassThru  # write your log file. -PassThru also writes the output on screen