"[" and "]" characters mess up get-childitem

Question

Using PowerShell 4.0, I am trying to get the size of multiple directories and I am getting very inconsistent results between what windows tells me and what my code is telling me. The code in question is: ``` $temp4 = ($folderInfo.rootFolder).fullname $folderInfo.directories += Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $temp4 -Recurse -Force -Directory $folderInfo.directories += $folderInfo.rootFolder foreach ($dir in $folderInfo.directories) { $temp3 = $dir.fullname $temp2 = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $temp3 -Force $temp = (Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $dir.fullname -Force -File | Measure-Object -Property length -Sum -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Sum $folderInfo.totalSize += $temp } return $folderInfo ``` if `$folderInfo.rootFolder = D:\sample` then I get what I want but if `$folderInfo.rootFolder = D:\[sample` then I get Get-ChildItem : Cannot retrieve the dynamic parameters for the cmdlet. The specified wildcard character pattern is not valid: sample [sample At C:\powershell scripts\test.ps1:55 cha…

Accepted Answer

Use the `-LiteralPath` parameter in place of `-Path` to suppress the wildcard globbing. Also, since you're using V4, you can use the `-Directory` switch and dispense with the `$_.iscontainer` filter:

```
$folderInfo.directories = 
 Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $folderInfo.rootFolder -Recurse -Force -Directory 
```

If you have more squre brackets farther down the directory tree, keep using literpath in subsequent Get-ChildItem commands:

```
$folderInfo.directories += Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $folderInfo.rootFolder -Recurse -Force -Directory
    $folderInfo.directories += Get-Item -LiteralPath $folderInfo.rootFolder
    foreach ($dir in $folderInfo.directories)
    {
        $temp2 = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $dir.PSPath -Force
        $temp = (Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $dir.fullname -Force -File | Measure-Object -Property length -Sum -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Sum
        $folderInfo.totalSize += $temp
    }
    return $folderInfo
```

"[" and "]" characters mess up get-childitem

Solution

Problem