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ErrorLevel equivalent

PowerShell Team

15 Sep 2006 12:04 AM

Comments 7

PSMDTAG:FAQ: ErrorLevel - what is the PowerShell equivalent?

In Cmd.exe, %ErrorLevel% is a builtin variable which indicates the success or failure of the last executable run.

In PowerShell, we support:

$?
Contains True if last operation succeeded and False otherwise.
And

$LASTEXITCODE
Contains the exit code of the last Win32 executable execution.

PS> 2+2
4
PS> $?
True
PS> 3/$null
Attempted to divide by zero.
At line:1 char:3
+ 3/$ <<<< null
PS> $?
False
PS>
PS> ping localhost

Pinging jpsvista1.ntdev.corp.microsoft.com [::1] from ::1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms
Reply from ::1: time<1ms

Ping statistics for ::1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
PS> $lastexitcode
0
PS> ping asdfasdf
Ping request could not find host asdfasdf. Please check the name and try again.
PS> $lastexitcode
1

Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell/Aspen Architect
Visit the Windows PowerShell Team blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell
Visit the Windows PowerShell ScriptCenter at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx

PSMDTAG:ERROR: %ErrorLevel% , $? and $LastExitCode

FAQ, ErrorLevel, $lastExitCode

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Comments

Sung M Kim

15 Sep 2006 12:43 PM

I was trying to see if it is possible to capture both "$LASTEXITCODE" and "$?" at the same time since getting the value of "$LASTEXITCODE" first would reset the value of "$?".

My approach was to assign array of @($LASTEXITCODE, $?) to two different variables, say, $a & $b.

I had two demo functions
function foo { ping a }
function bar { throw "error!" }

After running

foo | bar

I ran

$a, $b = @($LASTEXITCODE, $?)

Values of
$a -> 1
$b -> False

The result seemed correct but I am not certain if "$a, $b = @($LASTEXITCODE, $?)" is the right way to capture both error values or not since "$?" is the second element in the array and not sure if anything is going on to change the value of last powershell error value($?) while assigning array values to two different variables.

Am I just too paranoid?
PowerShell Team

15 Sep 2006 6:16 PM

$? always reflects the status of the last expression. This is highlighted by the following example:

PS> function barf {throw "Spew"}
PS> barf
Spew
At line:1 char:21
+ function barf {throw <<<< "Spew"}
PS> $?
False
PS> $?
True

$LastExitCode changes only when you run an executable. As such, just grab $? first and then grab $LastExitCode - you don't need to get them in a subexpression.

Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell/Aspen Architect
Visit the Windows PowerShell Team blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell
Visit the Windows PowerShell ScriptCenter at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx
lb

3 Oct 2006 4:09 AM

$LASTEXITCODE would be a good name for a film about a burnt out techie who writes a powershell script that embezzles trillions of dollars out of a bank.
Manju

7 Jan 2008 9:02 PM

Can we change the value in lastexitcode ?

is this a read only attribute
Lidral

2 Sep 2008 6:23 PM

$LASTEXITCODE seems to behave differently on Vista than on Windows Server 2008 for PowerShell script calls.

When I invoke a PowerShell script on Vista, both $? and $LASTEXITCODE seem to be set on return from the script. That is, if $? is True, then $LASTEXITCODE will be 0. If $? is False, then $LASTEXITCODE will be non-zero.

For script invocations on W2K8, it appears as if $LASTEXITCODE will be set iff the invoked script returns via an exit command. Otherwise, $LASTEXITCODE may be null.

Is this a feature? Is $LASTEXITCODE only supposed to be set by executables (including cmd.exe)? Is $? useful for testing the success or failure of PowerShell scripts?
Ulric

3 Feb 2009 11:40 AM

Just to comment on Sung's issue - you could always get both variables in one statement like:

$returncode = $?+":"+$lastexitcode;

$codearr = $returncode.split(":");

write-host $codearr[0];

write-host $codearr[1];

I'm a noob with PowerShell but I thought this might work.
Box293

12 Apr 2010 9:48 PM

Quote:

$LASTEXITCODE would be a good name for a film about a burnt out techie who writes a powershell script that embezzles trillions of dollars out of a bank.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 4:09 AM by lb

HA HA HA that is so funny.