Remove-Item -Recurse with an -Include or -Filter argument mistakenly tries to remove the directory itself #16153

Prerequisites

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Steps to reproduce

Note:

• This issue has partly been reported before, in the context of Inconsistencies between Get-ChildItem and Remove-Item with respect to -Recurse and -Include #3727, but it's worth creating a focused report.
• The problem affects -Exclude too, but use of -Exclude with file filters is treacherous and not meaningfully supported.

When you combine Remove-Item -Recurse with either -Include or -Filter, only those items inside the target directory subtree that match the pattern(s) are removed, as intended.

However, if you invoke such a command with . as the input path, i.e. from inside the target directory, the command fails, as an attempt is seemingly made to delete the directory itself:

# Switch to a temporary directory.
Push-Location -ea Stop ($tmpDir = (New-Item -Type Directory -Force (Join-Path Temp:/ $PID)).FullName)

try {

$null = New-Item -Force 1.txt, sub/2.txt

Remove-Item . -Recurse -Filter *.txt

$null = New-Item -Force 1.txt, sub/2.txt

Remove-Item . -Recurse -Include *.txt

} finally {
  # Clean up.
  Pop-Location; Remove-Item $tmpDir -Recurse
}

Expected behavior

Both Remove-Item calls should succeed and delete all *.txt files from the current dir's subtree.

Actual behavior

Both commands fail.

Error details

Cannot remove the item at '<full-path-of-current-dir>' because it is in use.

Environment data

PowerShell Core 7.2.0-preview.9

The problem also affects Windows PowerShell.

Visuals

No response