PowerShell Invoke-ContextSplit

Based on the UNIX csplit command

The Invoke-ContextSplit command copies the specified file and separates the copy into segments. The original input file, which remains unaltered, must be a text file.

The Invoke-ContextSplit command writes the segments to files xx00 . . . xxN.

• The Pattern can be an array of regular expressions Invoke-ContextSplit .\book.txt '^(\s+)?Chapter'
• The Range can be an array of numbers Invoke-ContextSplit .\LineTest.txt -Range 13,62,100

What if

You had a log like this and wanted to create separate files each time you saw the words start?

1291126929200 started 88 videolist15.txt 4 Good 4
1291126929250 59.875 29.0 29.580243595150186 43.016096916037604
1291126929296 59.921 29.0 29.52749417740926 42.78632483544682
1291126929359 59.984 29.0 29.479540161281143 42.56031951027556
1291126929437 60.046 50.0 31.345036510255586 42.682281485516945
1291126932859 started 88 videolist15.txt 5 Good 4
1291126932900 stopped

No problem

Invoke-ContextSplit .\testLog.txt start

This creates two files xx01.txt and xx02.txt

xx01.txt

1291126929200 started 88 videolist15.txt 4 Good 4
1291126929250 59.875 29.0 29.580243595150186 43.016096916037604
1291126929296 59.921 29.0 29.52749417740926 42.78632483544682
1291126929359 59.984 29.0 29.479540161281143 42.56031951027556
1291126929437 60.046 50.0 31.345036510255586 42.682281485516945

xx02.txt

1291126932859 started 88 videolist15.txt 5 Good 4
1291126932900 stopped

But Wait, there's more

You want to split out a separate file each time start or stop is found. Plus, you don't like the prefix xx for each file or txt as the extension. Also, you don't want to guess at how many files are created.

No Problem

Invoke-ContextSplit allows multiple patterns to be searched for and control of the file name generated. Using PowerShell's Verbose switch gives feedback.

Invoke-ContextSplit .\testLog.txt start,stop -Prefix log -Suffix tmp -Verbose

Here is the output. The name and size of the file.

VERBOSE: C:\PoSh\Invoke-ContextSplit\log01.tmp [  308]
VERBOSE: C:\PoSh\Invoke-ContextSplit\log02.tmp [   51]
VERBOSE: C:\PoSh\Invoke-ContextSplit\log03.tmp [   23]

What Else can Invoke-ContextSplit Do?

More to come...