#PSTip Ignoring errors

Note: This tip requires PowerShell 3.0 or above.

PowerShell lets you control how it responds to a non-terminating error (an error that does not stop the cmdlet processing) globally via the $ErrorActionPreference preference variable, or at a cmdlet level using the -ErrorAction parameter. Both ways support the following values:

Stop: Displays the error message and stops executing.

Inquire: Displays the error message and asks you whether you want to continue.

Continue: Displays the error message and continues (Default) executing.

SilentlyContinue: No effect. The error message is not displayed and execution continues without interruption.

No matter which value you choose, the error is written to the host and added to the $error variable. Starting with PowerShell 3.0, at a command level only (e.g ErrorAction), we have an additional value: Ignore. When Ignore is specified, the error is neither displayed not added to $error variable.

# check the error count
PS> $error.Count
0

# use SilentlyContinue to ignore the error
PS> Get-ChildItem NoSuchFile -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# error is ignored but is added to the $error variable
PS> $error.Count
1

PS> $error.Clear()
# Using Ignore truly discards the error and the error is not added to $error variable
PS> Get-ChildItem NoSuchFile -ErrorAction Ignore
PS> $error.Count
0