Powershell with Git Command Error Handling - automatically abort on non-zero exit code from external program

Question

I use Git to deploy my web application. So in Teamcity I prepare my application (compilation, minify JS and HTML, delete unused files, etc...) and then I have a Powershell build step :

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
git init
git remote add origin '%env.gitFolder%'
git fetch
git reset --mixed origin/master
git add .
git commit -m '%build.number%'
git push origin master

But if an exception throw, the script continue (even if I set $ErrorActionPreference = "Stop") and the build is successful.

I want the script to stop when there is an error, and the build to failed.

I tried to put Format stderr output as: error on the build step and Fail build if: an error message is logged by build runner, so the build failed, but the script continue, and so it's creating an stupid commit.

I try to put a try-catch in my script, but it doesn't enter in the catch...

Does anyone have an idea to stop the script and failed the build on error ?

Sorry for my English, I'm French... ^^

Answer 1

The $ErrorActionPreference variable does not apply to calling external utilities ([console] applications) such as git, up to at least PowerShell 7.2.x

• A potential future enhancement is being discussed in RFC #277, for proper integration of calls to external programs into PowerShell's error-handling.

There are only two ways to determine success vs. failure of an external utility:

• By examining the automatic $LASTEXITCODE variable, which PowerShell sets to the **exit code reported by the external utility**.
  By convention, a value of 0 indicates success, whereas any nonzero value indicates failure. (Do note that some utilities, e.g., robocopy.exe, use certain nonzero exit codes to communicate non-error conditions too.)

• If you're not interested in the specific exit code reported, you can examine the Boolean automatic variable $?, which reflects $True for exit code 0, and $False for any nonzero exit code.

  • Caveats: As of PowerShell (Core) 7.1, there are two bugs; both these are tentatively fixed via the PSNotApplyErrorActionToStderr experimental feature (!) in preview versions of 7.2 (all experimental features are turned on by default in newly installed preview versions) - let's hope these fixes make it into 7.2:

    • $? can falsely reflect $false when $LASTEXITCODE is 0 and a stderr redirection (2> or *>) is used and the command emitted stderr output (which in itself doesn't necessarily indicate failure) - see GitHub issue #10512.

      • It is therefore a good habit to form to query only $LASTEXITCODE, not $? to infer failure vs. succcess.

    • If $ErrorActionPreference is set to 'Stop' and you happen to use 2> or *> with an external program and that program produces actual stderr output, $ErrorActionPreference unexpectedly does apply and causes a script-terminating error (whether or not the external program signals actual failure via a nonzero exit code) - see GitHub issue #4002

Acting on a failure requires explicit action, typically by using the Throw keyword to generate a script-terminating error.

---

Clearly, checking $LASTEXITCODE / $? after every external-utility call is cumbersome, so here's a wrapper function that facilitates this process:

Note: While this function works, it does not try to compensate for the broken-up-to-at-least-v7.2.x passing of arguments with embedded double quotes to external programs. To get this compensation, you can use the iee function from the Native module, installable from the PowerShell Gallery via Install-Module Native.

function Invoke-Utility {
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Invokes an external utility, ensuring successful execution.

.DESCRIPTION
Invokes an external utility (program) and, if the utility indicates failure by 
way of a nonzero exit code, throws a script-terminating error.

* Pass the command the way you would execute the command directly.
* Do NOT use & as the first argument if the executable name is not a literal.

.EXAMPLE
Invoke-Utility git push

Executes `git push` and throws a script-terminating error if the exit code
is nonzero.
#>
  $exe, $argsForExe = $Args
  # Workaround: Prevents 2> redirections applied to calls to this function
  #             from accidentally triggering a terminating error.
  #             See bug report at https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/4002
  $ErrorActionPreference = 'Continue'
  try { & $exe $argsForExe } catch { Throw } # catch is triggered ONLY if $exe can't be found, never for errors reported by $exe itself
  if ($LASTEXITCODE) { Throw "$exe indicated failure (exit code $LASTEXITCODE; full command: $Args)." }
}

Now you just need to prepend Invoke-Utility  to all your git calls, and if any of them reports a nonzero exit code, the script is aborted.

If that is too verbose, define an alias for your function: Set-Alias iu Invoke-Utility, in which case you only need to prepend iu :

iu git init
iu git remote add origin '%env.gitFolder%'
iu git fetch
# ...