Using Catalog Files

Catalog file support (.cat) is new in PowerShell 5.1. Cat files basically are file lists with hash values. You can use them to ensure that a given file structure is unchanged.

Here is a simple example. It takes a folder (make sure it exists, or else rename it) and creates a cat file for the entire folder content. Note that this involves creating a hash value for each file in the folder, so keep an eye on a reasonable folder size:

$path = c:\folderToCheck"
$catPath = "$home\Desktop\summary.cat"
New-FileCatalog -Path $path -CatalogVersion 2.0 -CatalogFilePath $catPath

New-FileCatalog creates a summary.cat file on your desktop. This file can then be used to test the folder structure and make sure no file has changed:

Test-FileCatalog -Detailed -Path $path -CatalogFilePath $catPath

The result may look similar to this:

 
Status        : Valid
HashAlgorithm : SHA1
CatalogItems  : {[remoting systeminventar.ps1, 
                F43C8D6F9CB93FB9AA5DBA6733D9996645832256], [klonen und 
                prozessprio.ps1, F3DE20424CD90CDB5B85933B777A2F9A3F3D3187], 
                [scriptblock rueckgabewerte.ps1, 
                EB239D7906EF42E2639CACBE68C6FDD8F4AD899F], [Untitled4.ps1, 
                E5E4DC20934287ED869230706A1DEEDEB550B8DE]...}
PathItems     : {[beispielsyntax.ps1, 
                5183C82B7F0F3D0623242DD5F97A658724BE3B81], [closure.ps1, 
                D2A036B068548B3E773E3BEBCF40997231576ED1], [debug1.ps1, 
                3547D2659792A9ABA9E6E12F287D7A8116540FCF], [debug2.ps1, 
                76C63FA578C09F30DF2BE055C37C039AFB1EFEDE]...}
Signature     : System.Management.Automation.Signature 
 

Note that New-FileCatalog does not currently support special characters in file paths such as German “Umlaute”.

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