Get-ChildItem Recurse works on PowerShell 5.1 but not on 7.2.1

Prerequisites

• Write a descriptive title.
• Make sure you are able to repro it on the latest released version
• Search the existing issues.
• Refer to the FAQ.
• Refer to Differences between Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell.

Steps to reproduce

I have created simple script to find all files of a given name on my C:\ disk. It is working on Windows PowerShell 5.1, but not on PowerShell 7.2.1.

Create empty file demo-2021-12-20.txt in C:\ps_test and run this script.ps1:

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\" -Filter "demo-2021*.txt" `
    -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
    ForEach-Object {
        $output = $_.Name + "`t" + $_.FullName
        Write-Host $output
    }

Expected behavior

demo-2021-12-20.txt     C:\ps_test\demo-2021-12-20.txt

Actual behavior

Line |
   1 |  Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\" -Filter "demo-2021*.txt" `
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | The system cannot find the path specified.

Error details

Error occurs when using PowerShell 7.2.1 but not when using Windows PowerShell 5.1.19041.1320 (same machine).

Environment data

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      7.2.1
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    7.2.1
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.19042
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Visuals

No response

[rafrafek]

I think I have found the source of this error. I have paths on my disk that are over 260 characters in length. It was pain to figure it out, but in the end I got it simply by filtering whole disk recursive with “*”. There is issue already for it: https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/16123

Thank you @iSazonov for testing! I’m closing this issue and I’ll test it with 7.3 😃

[jhoneill]

Start with

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\" -Filter "demo-2021*.txt"  -recurse

Without any of the other parts. I’m guessing there is a problem directory which threw a non-terminating error before and is a terminating error now.

You can try

Get-ChildItem   -path C:\ -Directory | foreach {write-host $_ ; Get-ChildItem  $_ -filter "demo-2021*.txt" -Recurse} 

And that well tell you which directory is causing the problem.