Repeat every n seconds forever

Repeat a command, on a loop, so you can monitor a process.

I wanted to repeat this every 5 seconds:

dir . *.* -recurse | measure | % Count

And used this command to achieve it:

cls; while ($true) { dir . *.* -recurse | measure | % Count; start-sleep -seconds 5; }

Poll File Size

This example will show you the file size, every second (expressed in GB)

while($true) { dir *wellsrv* | % { $_.Length / 1gb; sleep 1} }

Poll disk space

while($true) { get-psdrive c | % { $_.Free / 1GB; sleep 3} }

Poll Current Time, FileName and Size

Here's one that shows the current time, the file name and size every 30 seconds

while($true) { dir outputlog.txt | % {
			"" +  (get-date -f "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss") +
			": " + ($_.Name) +
			", " + ($_.Length / 1gb) +
			" GB";
			sleep 30
			}
}

Poll Space Used and remaining

Here's one that shows how much space is left on the drive...

while (1) {
	get-psdrive C |
		% {
			"" + "{0:0.00}" -f ($_.Used/1GB) + " used, " +
			"{0:0.00}" -f ($_.Free/1GB)   + " free"
		};
		sleep 3;
}

Making repeats obvious

I had a recurring script like the ones above, and it started by clearing the screen and then giving some output.

It was too quick though -- I couldn't tell if it had worked once and hung, or was just getting the same output every time.

So I added this just before the clear screen: write-host "Checking..." -f yellow; start-sleep -seconds 1;

That is, the script ended like this:

start-sleep -seconds 5;
write-host "Checking..." -f yellow;
start-sleep -seconds 1;
cls;