Powershell shortcut to list all files and folders (including hidden files) and order them by date

Question

I'm basically looking for something like ls -alt, but in Powershell (Windows 11). Currently I'm using

gci -fo | sort LastWriteTime -Descending

but it's a bit of a doozy, and definitely not easy to remember. Isn't there anything shorter, which achieves the same?

EDIT: the proposed solution using

Function ls-alt {Invoke-Expression "gci $Args -Force"} # | sort LastWriteTime -Descending}

doesn't work. Proof:

1. create an empty dir with mkdir test

2. cd test

3. notepad foo, write some string (I wrote string), save and close

4. copy some older file into test (I used an existing .gitconfig, but I think any older file would work)

5. PS C:\Users\xxx\test> gci | sort LastWriteTime -Descending

    Directory: C:\Users\xxx\test
   

   Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

   ---

   -a---- 3/18/2024 10:04 PM 6 foo.txt -a---- 8/31/2023 9:13 AM 66 .gitconfig

PS C:\Users\xxx\test> ls-alt


    Directory: C:\Users\xxx\test


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a----         8/31/2023   9:13 AM             66 .gitconfig
-a----         3/18/2024  10:04 PM              6 foo.txt

The proposed solution doesn't correctly order files by LastWriteTime. The content of the profile file is as expected:

notepad $PROFILE
Function ls-alt {Invoke-Expression "gci $Args -Force"} # | sort LastWriteTime -Descending}

Answer 1

If you want a customized version of a Cmdlet or a series of actions accessible with minimal typing, define it as a function in your PowerShell profile -- then it will be available in every console session you run.

A simple version would wrap your example verbatim:

Function ls-alt {gci -force | sort LastWriteTime -Descending}

But this limits its to the current directory with none of the familiar options of filtering, recursion, etc.

To have your customizations as the defaults and retain the use of positional parameters, named parameters, and aliases native to Get-ChildItem, you can define it using Invoke-Expression and the $Args automatic variable:

Function ls-alt {Invoke-Expression "gci $Args -Force" | sort LastWriteTime -Descending}

That will allow ls-alt -s (Recurse), ls-alt $HOME, etc.