I'm trying to get a list of certain files from a directory and then delete them.  I'm sure I'm doing something very basic wrong...but I can't seem to figure out what.  Here is what I did:

 

 $file = Get-ChildItem -recurse | where-object {$_ -match "HTTP*.PDF"}

I ran $file | gm to make sure it has the delete method, which it does.  And I checked $file to make sure it has the files I want to delete.  Then I ran this:

 

$file.delete()

Method invocation failed because [System.Object[]] doesn't contain a method 'delete'

how come it shows a delete method when I run $file | gm then?

Just to see I tried $file | foreach-object {$_.delete()}, which didn't return an error but didn't actually delete anything.

Ok never mind...apparently it did work. I guess I was expecting the objects to disappear from $file also, but I guess they don't...

Get-ChildItem (and get-anything for that matter) will usually return a collection of objects, in this case [System.IO.FileInfo].  The collection itself is a...wait for it...[System.Object[]].  What happens is when you send stuff through the pipeline, the collection is broken down.  Get-Member is smart enough to guess what you wanted to know, namely, what methods does the fileinfo object have, instead of what methods does the System.Object have.

As you later found out, it really did delete the files.  Then it tried to delete the object and as it says, that object doesn't contain the delete method.

 

Not sure if this bit was clear...the quoting mechanism ate it:

Easier way to do it: gci http*.pdf -rec | remove-item