Question

I am feeling surprised by the difference between two seemingly identical scripts.

first.ps1:

'A' if ($true) { 'B' }  'C' 

second.ps1:

'A' if ($true) { 'B'  }  'C' 

Now open a CMD window, and run these scripts like this:

     powershell – < first.ps1     powershell – < second.ps1 

first produces:

 A B C 

while second produces just

 A 

Answer 1

This has to be a bug.

In the redirection under cmd.exe case, the function completes normally and correctly if the if and else blocks are individually all on one line:

$candidate = '.\foo.txt' $current= '.\bar.txt'  'Comparison starts' if ($(diff $(get-content $current) $(get-content $candidate)).length -gt 0){'There was a difference'}  else {'There was not a difference'} 'Comparison over' 

But if either block is split up onto more than one line and that branch is taken, the script aborts with no warning/output.

I’d report this on the PowerShell feedback site (connect.microsoft.com).