Terminating vs non-terminating errors in PowerShell - Practice Questions

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

Identify the error type from output

What type of error does the following PowerShell command produce?

Get-Item 'C:\nonexistentfile.txt'

PowerShell

Get-Item 'C:\nonexistentfile.txt'

A Terminating error

B Non-terminating error

C No error, outputs null

D Syntax error

💡 Hint

Think about whether the command stops execution or continues after the error.

Get-Item produces a terminating error if the item does not exist, stopping execution unless handled.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

Recognize non-terminating error behavior

What happens when you run this command?

Get-ChildItem 'C:\nonexistentfolder' -ErrorAction Continue

PowerShell

Get-ChildItem 'C:\nonexistentfolder' -ErrorAction Continue

A Syntax error

B Terminating error, stops execution

C No error, lists files

D Non-terminating error, continues execution

💡 Hint

Consider the effect of -ErrorAction Continue on errors.

Get-ChildItem produces a non-terminating error if the folder does not exist and continues execution.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Why does this script stop on error?

Given this script:

try {
  Get-Item 'C:\nonexistentfile.txt' -ErrorAction Stop
}
Write-Output 'Script continues'

Why does the script stop before printing 'Script continues'?

PowerShell

try {
  Get-Item 'C:\nonexistentfile.txt' -ErrorAction Stop
}
Write-Output 'Script continues'

A Because Get-Item throws a terminating error caught by catch, script continues after catch

B Because Get-Item throws a terminating error but catch block is missing, script stops

C Because Get-Item throws a terminating error caught by catch, script stops anyway

D Because Get-Item throws a non-terminating error, script stops

💡 Hint

Think about how try-catch handles terminating errors.

Get-Item with -ErrorAction Stop throws a terminating error. Without a catch block, the script stops.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which command causes a terminating error?

Which of these commands causes a terminating error in PowerShell?

A Write-Output 'Hello World'

B Get-ChildItem 'C:\nonexistentfolder' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

C Remove-Item 'C:\nonexistentfile.txt' -ErrorAction Stop

D Get-Process 'nonexistentprocess' -ErrorAction Continue

💡 Hint

Look for commands with -ErrorAction Stop on missing items.

Remove-Item with -ErrorAction Stop throws a terminating error if the item does not exist.

🚀 Application

expert

Handling non-terminating errors as terminating

You want to treat non-terminating errors as terminating to stop the script on any error. Which command achieves this?

Get-ChildItem 'C:\nonexistentfolder' ???

A -ErrorAction Stop

B -ErrorAction Continue

C -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

D -ErrorAction Ignore

💡 Hint

Which ErrorAction makes non-terminating errors behave like terminating ones?

Using -ErrorAction Stop converts non-terminating errors into terminating errors, stopping the script.