How do I change a file's attribute using Powershell?

Question

I have a Powershell script that copies files from one location to another. Once the copy is complete I want to clear the Archive attribute on the files in the source location that have been copied.

How do I clear the Archive attribute of a file using Powershell?

Answer 1

You can use the good old dos attrib command like this:

attrib -a *.*

Or to do it using Powershell you can do something like this:

$a = get-item myfile.txt
$a.attributes = 'Normal'

Answer 2

From here:

function Get-FileAttribute{
    param($file,$attribute)
    $val = [System.IO.FileAttributes]$attribute;
    if((gci $file -force).Attributes -band $val -eq $val){$true;} else { $false; }
} 


function Set-FileAttribute{
    param($file,$attribute)
    $file =(gci $file -force);
    $file.Attributes = $file.Attributes -bor ([System.IO.FileAttributes]$attribute).value__;
    if($?){$true;} else {$false;}
}

Answer 3

As the Attributes is basically a bitmask field, you need to be sure clear the archive field while leaving the rest alone:

PS C:\> $f = get-item C:\Archives.pst
PS C:\> $f.Attributes
Archive, NotContentIndexed
PS C:\> $f.Attributes = $f.Attributes -band (-bnot [System.IO.FileAttributes]::Archive)
PS C:\> $f.Attributes
NotContentIndexed
PS H:\>

Answer 4

This might also help: http://cmschill.net/stringtheory/2008/04/bitwise-operators/

Answer 5

you may use the following command to toggel the behaviour

PS E:\temp> $file = (gci e:\temp\test.txt) PS E:\temp> $file.attributes Archive PS E:\temp> $file.attributes = $file.Attributes -bxor ([System.IO.FileAttributes]::Archive) PS E:\temp> $file.attributes Normal PS E:\temp> $file.attributes = $file.Attributes -bxor ([System.IO.FileAttributes]::Archive) PS E:\temp> $file.attributes Archive