- Trending Categories
- Data Structure
- Networking
- RDBMS
- Operating System
- Java
- MS Excel
- iOS
- HTML
- CSS
- Android
- Python
- C Programming
- C++
- C#
- MongoDB
- MySQL
- Javascript
- PHP
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Biology
- Mathematics
- English
- Economics
- Psychology
- Social Studies
- Fashion Studies
- Legal Studies
- Selected Reading
- UPSC IAS Exams Notes
- Developer's Best Practices
- Questions and Answers
- Effective Resume Writing
- HR Interview Questions
- Computer Glossary
- Who is Who
How to use the ErrorActionPreference variable in PowerShell?
ErrorActionPreference variable in PowerShell is to control the non-terminating errors by converting them to terminating errors. Error handling depends upon which value you assign to $ErrorActionPreference variable.
The values are as below.
Continue − This is the default value of the variable and when the error occurs, an error is displayed in the PowerShell console, and the script continues the execution.
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Logicaldisk -ComputerName Nonexist Write-Host "Hello World"
Output
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Logicaldisk -ComputerName Nonexist Write-Host "Hello World" Get-WmiObject : The RPC server is unavailable. At line:2 char:1 + Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Logicaldisk -ComputerName Nonexist + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Get-WmiObject], COMException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : GetWMICOMException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetWmiObj ectCommand Hello World
Stop − Error will not be displayed in the console and further pipeline execution is stopped. In the below example, there will be no output.
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop" Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Logicaldisk -ComputerName Nonexist Write-Host "Hello World"
SilentlyContinue − Error output will not be displayed and the script executes the next commands in the pipeline.
$ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue" Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Logicaldisk -ComputerName Nonexist Write-Host "`nHello World" -BackgroundColor DarkGreen
Output −
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>> $ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue" Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Logicaldisk -ComputerName Nonexist Write-Host "`nHello World" -BackgroundColor DarkGreen Hello World
Inquire − It waits for user prompt if an error occurs and asks for continue. An error will be displayed.
$ErrorActionPreference = "Inquire" Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Logicaldisk -ComputerName Nonexist Write-Host "`nHello World" -BackgroundColor DarkGreen
Output
If you press “Yes/Yes to All” then error output will be displayed and “Halt Command/Suspend” will not display an error.
Suspend − This value is used in the PowerShell workflow to suspend workflow for investigation purposes and then resume.
When you close the PowerShell session, the value of the $ErrorActionPreference will be set to default i.e. Continue.