Literal paths and provider boundaries

The idea

PowerShell paths can identify items in different providers, including filesystem locations and other hierarchical stores. A parameter named Path may support wildcard interpretation, while LiteralPath treats the supplied path as the exact name for cmdlets that offer it. Quoting protects how the shell parses a string, but does not disable wildcard interpretation performed later by the receiving parameter.

This distinction matters for ordinary filenames containing square brackets or wildcard characters. When the caller selects one exact item, preserve that identity with LiteralPath instead of constructing a wildcard expression. When a pattern is intended, document that contract and check the matched set before modifying anything. Avoid assuming that every provider has filesystem properties or that joining path segments validates their existence or permissions.

$name = 'report[1].txt'
$name -eq 'report[1].txt'
'report1.txt' -like 'report[1].txt'

True
True

Equality treats the brackets as ordinary text. The -like pattern uses [1] as a one-character class, illustrating why a pattern can select a different filename.