topic Re: Ignore Try..Catch on terminating errors in VMware PowerCLI Discussions

Ignore Try..Catch on terminating errors

JDMils_Interact — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 01:34:03 GMT

I'm very sorry for this basic question and I MUST be missing something obvious. I cannot get a terminating error located within a Try..Catch to be ignored and for processing to continue.

$ErrorActionPreference = "Ignore" Try { Write-Host "Try this...." Get-Item -Location "C:\Temp" -ErrorAction Ignore Write-Host "Error ignored" } Catch { Write-Host "Try-Catch activated" } Finally { Write-Host "Finally activated" }

Basically I want the terminating error "Get-Item -Location "C:\Temp" -ErrorAction Ignore" to be ignored and processing to continue. In my testing, the Catch block is always processed.

My PS version:

$PSVersionTable Name Value ---- ----- PSVersion 5.1.14393.6343 PSEdition Desktop PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...} BuildVersion 10.0.14393.6343 CLRVersion 4.0.30319.42000 WSManStackVersion 3.0 PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3 SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1

Re: Ignore Try..Catch on terminating errors

LucD — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 07:57:40 GMT

With -ErrorAction Ignore you are in fact disabling the terminating exception.
So your code will never end in the Catch block.

If the cmdlet(s) you want to capture does/do not have a terminating exception, you must add -ErrorAction Stop.

Re: Ignore Try..Catch on terminating errors

JDMils_Interact — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 23:01:11 GMT

That's what I thought. When I run the code, it actually ALWAYS enters the Catch block as shown here:

PS C:\Users\jmilano\Documents\PowerShell_Scripts\Datastores> C:\Users\jmilano\Documents\PowerShell_Scripts\TestTryCatch.ps1 Try this.... Try-Catch activated Finally activated

I have the Try..Catch to capture all major terminating errors, however I have one command which i do NOT want to terminate on, I just want the code to continue running. The problem is that the code ALWAYS enters the Catch block and I cannot figger out why I.

Note: Get-Item does not have a location parameter so this should trigger an error which I want to ignore. This is for testing purposes atm.

Even testing from the command line, ErrorAction doesn't work:

PS C:\Users\jmilano\Documents\PowerShell_Scripts> get-item -location "c:\temp" -ErrorAction Continue Get-Item : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'location'. At line:1 char:10 + get-item -location "c:\temp" -ErrorAction Continue + ~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Get-Item], ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetItemCommand PS C:\Users\jmilano\Documents\PowerShell_Scripts> get-item -location "c:\temp" -ErrorAction Ignore Get-Item : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'location'. At line:1 char:10 + get-item -location "c:\temp" -ErrorAction Ignore + ~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Get-Item], ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetItemCommand PS C:\Users\jmilano\Documents\PowerShell_Scripts> get-item -location "c:\temp" -ErrorAction Inquire Get-Item : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'location'. At line:1 char:10 + get-item -location "c:\temp" -ErrorAction Inquire + ~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Get-Item], ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetItemCommand PS C:\Users\jmilano\Documents\PowerShell_Scripts> get-item -location "c:\temp" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Get-Item : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'location'. At line:1 char:10 + get-item -location "c:\temp" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue + ~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Get-Item], ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetItemCommand

Re: Ignore Try..Catch on terminating errors

LucD — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 08:15:31 GMT

The reason the Catch block is activated is because the Get-Item cmdlet does not have a Location parameter.
I suspect you mean to use the parameter Path there.

Also the Finally block is always executed, independent if there was an error or not.

So my code

Try { Write-Host "Try this...." Get-Item -Path "C:\Temp" -ErrorAction Ignore Write-Host "Error ignored" } Catch { Write-Host "Try-Catch activated" } Finally { Write-Host "Finally activated" }

Correctly shows

Try this.... Directory: C:\ Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d---- 14-May-23 13:11 Temp Error ignored Finally activated

And if use a non-existing folder, thus provoking an error, I get

Try this.... Error ignored Finally activated

No folder was found/listed

Re: Ignore Try..Catch on terminating errors

JDMils_Interact — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 22:05:45 GMT

I was using Get-Item -Location "C:\Temp" because I wanted to create a terminating error, then using the -ErrorAction Ignore, I was hoping the code would ignore the error and continue running.

This is just my way of testing.

Re: Ignore Try..Catch on terminating errors

LucD — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 22:53:40 GMT

A syntax error is not a terminating exception.
That error is captured during the syntax check before the PS engine even starts executing the code.

Re: Ignore Try..Catch on terminating errors

xuyenphungngoc — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 07:52:34 GMT

encounter the same issue

Re: Ignore Try..Catch on terminating errors

LucD — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 08:01:10 GMT

There is no issue, it works as designed.
The test is incorrect, see my previous explanation of the difference between syntax checking and runtime exceptions.