ErrorAction parameter in PowerShell

Introduction

The ErrorAction parameter helps you control what happens when a command runs into an error. It lets you decide if the script should stop, continue, or silently ignore errors.

When you want to stop a script if an important command fails.

When you want to try a command but ignore errors and keep going.

When you want to log errors but not show them on the screen.

When you want to handle errors yourself in a script.

When running commands that might fail but should not stop the whole script.

Syntax

PowerShell

Command -ErrorAction <Action>

Replace with one of: SilentlyContinue, Stop, Continue, Inquire, Ignore.

Use -ErrorAction to control error behavior for that specific command.

Examples

This tries to get a file but does not show any error if the file is missing.

PowerShell

Get-Item 'C:\file.txt' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

This stops the script if the file is not found.

PowerShell

Get-Item 'C:\file.txt' -ErrorAction Stop

This asks you what to do if an error happens.

PowerShell

Get-Item 'C:\file.txt' -ErrorAction Inquire

Sample Program

This script tries to get a file that does not exist. Because of -ErrorAction Stop, it jumps to catch block and prints a friendly message.

PowerShell

try {
    Get-Item 'C:\nonexistentfile.txt' -ErrorAction Stop
    Write-Output 'File found.'
} catch {
    Write-Output 'File not found. Handling error gracefully.'
}

Important Notes

SilentlyContinue hides errors but they still happen behind the scenes.

Stop lets you catch errors with try/catch blocks.

Continue shows errors but keeps running the script.

Summary

Use ErrorAction to control how PowerShell handles errors for commands.

Common values are SilentlyContinue, Stop, and Continue.

It helps make scripts more reliable and user-friendly.