Get Error - PowerShell

Overview

The Get-Error cmdlet retrieves error records from the current error stream. These error records represent errors that have occurred during the execution of PowerShell commands. By retrieving these error records, you can diagnose and troubleshoot issues in your scripts and commands.

Syntax

Get-Error [-ErrorVariable] <VariableName>

Options/Flags

-ErrorVariable

Specifies the name of a variable to store the error records in. If no value is provided, the error records are stored in the $Error variable.

Examples

Simple example:

Get-Error

This command retrieves all the error records from the current error stream.

Example using -ErrorVariable:

Get-Error -ErrorVariable MyErrors

This command retrieves all the error records from the current error stream and stores them in the $MyErrors variable.

Complex example:

Get-Error | Out-GridView -PassThru

This command retrieves all the error records from the current error stream and displays them in a graphical grid view. The -PassThru parameter ensures that the error records are also output to the pipeline.

Common Issues

One common issue when using Get-Error is that it may not capture all the errors that occur during the execution of your script. This can happen due to multiple reasons, such as if you explicitly handle errors using try/catch blocks or if an error is thrown during the execution of a function or script that is not part of your script. To avoid this issue, consider using the try statement with a finally block to capture all the errors, even those that occur outside of your script.

Integration

Get-Error can be integrated with other PowerShell commands and tools for advanced tasks. For example, you can combine it with the Out-File cmdlet to save the error records to a file.

Get-Error | Out-File Errors.txt

Here are some related commands to Get-Error:

  • Write-Error: Writes an error record to the error stream.
  • Throw: Throws an exception.
  • Catch: Catches an exception.