$Error automatic variable in PowerShell

Introduction

The $Error variable helps you see what errors happened in your PowerShell session. It keeps a list of recent errors so you can check and fix problems.

You want to find out why a command did not work.

You need to log errors from a script to understand issues later.

You want to show error details to help someone else fix a problem.

You want to clear old errors before running new commands.

You want to handle errors differently based on what happened.

Syntax

PowerShell

$Error

$Error is an automatic variable that stores error objects in a list.

The newest error is at $Error[0], and older errors have higher indexes.

Examples

Shows the most recent error message.

PowerShell

Write-Output $Error[0]

Clears all errors from the $Error list.

PowerShell

$Error.Clear()

Runs a command that causes an error, then shows the error details.

PowerShell

try { Get-Item 'C:\no_such_file.txt' } catch { Write-Output $Error[0] }

Sample Program

This script tries to get a file that does not exist. When it fails, it prints a message and shows the error details from $Error[0]. Then it shows how many errors are stored in $Error.

PowerShell

try {
    Get-Item 'C:\no_such_file.txt'
} catch {
    Write-Output "An error happened."
    Write-Output "Error details:"
    Write-Output $Error[0]
}

Write-Output "Total errors stored: $($Error.Count)"

Important Notes

$Error keeps errors only for the current session or script run.

You can use $ErrorActionPreference to control how PowerShell reacts to errors.

Summary

$Error stores recent errors automatically.

The newest error is $Error[0].

You can clear errors with $Error.Clear().