René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Select-String's wildcard matching for -Path should exclude directories","articleBody":"`Select-String` only supports _file_ paths passed to `-LiteralPath` and (in resolved form) `-Path`.\r\n\r\nAs an aside: Even though the error message when you pass a _directory_ path is technically correct, it could be more helpful:\r\n\r\n\u003e Select-String: The file /path/to/dir cannot be read: Access to the path '/path/to/dir' is denied.\r\n\r\nIt would be convenient to automatically exclude _directory_ matches from what a wildcard expression passed to `-Path` resolves to, given that they won't be processed anyway.\r\n\r\nThis would allow searching all files in a directory, whatever extension they have or whether they have one at all, with `Select-String -Path * findme`\r\n\r\nOn a side note: `-Path`'s wildcard matching currently _invariably_ excludes _hidden_ files, so the only way to include hidden files in the search is to pipe from `Get-Item` / `Get-ChildItem` with `-Force`.\r\n\r\nCurrent behavior\r\n------------------\r\n\r\nSetup: Create a directory that contains a subdirectory and a text file:\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\nPush-Location (New-Item -Type Directory -Force (Join-Path ([io.path]::GetTempPath()) $PID))\r\n$null = New-Item -Type Directory subd\r\n'hi' \u003e t.txt\r\n```\r\n\r\nUsing wildcard expression `*` reports an error, because `*` also matches the _directory_, `subd`:\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\n\u003e Select-String -Path * hi\r\nSelect-String : The file .../subd cannot be read: Access to the path '.../subd' is denied.\r\n...\r\n\r\nt.txt:1:hi\r\n\r\n```\r\n\r\nDesired behavior\r\n-----------------\r\n\r\nThe directory wildcard match should be ignored.\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\n\u003e Select-String -Path * hi\r\n\r\nt.txt:1:hi\r\n\r\n```\r\n\r\nEnvironment data\r\n----------------\r\n\r\n```powershell\r\nPowerShell Core v6.0.0-beta.6 on macOS 10.12.6\r\nPowerShell Core v6.0.0-beta.6 on Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS\r\nPowerShell Core v6.0.0-beta.6 on Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit; v10.0.15063)\r\nWindows PowerShell v5.1.15063.502 on Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (64-bit; v10.0.15063)\r\n```\r\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/mklement0","@type":"Person","name":"mklement0"},"datePublished":"2017-09-12T20:12:51.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":2},"url":"https://github.com/4820/PowerShell/issues/4820"}