Question

I am writing a rather lengthy PowerShell script to perform a lot of functions. For the most part, everything is going very well.

However, another function I am running at all levels of the script is a very detailed log. I’ll post the command line portion as an example (simplified):

    $Batch = $RunMe[1]
    $ResultCode = (Invoke-Expression $Batch -ErrorAction Stop)
    $ResultCode

My expected result is:

Return Code 0

Then I would log it. Instead I am getting something like:

C:\batchfiles\batchfile.bat argument

Which is the command I am using Invoke-Expression to execute.

Some quick explanation of the variables:

$RunMe is an array that stores the commands (0 is either “Batch” or “Proc” and 1 is the command to run)

$Batch is created in the code as written (this is the first reference to it)

$CurrFileToExec is the current file being processed (the script runs on a folder at a time). I’m using it for a string replace for the command line I got from SQL.

I can’t get $ResultCode to pass the correct output of the command. It just passes the command line function ($Batch) again.

As I said, the actual functionality part works great, but I can’t get that return code to my logfile.

Answer 1

If I can presume $batch contains external executables, the return code will be in the automatic variable $LASTEXITCODE – invoke-expression’s return consists of things written to STDOUT and STDERR by external applications or things written to powershell’s output or error streams by script. It will not contain the executable’s dos-style return code, if you called one.