How to fail the build via powershell

Question

I have a Hudson server with a few Jobs. One job creates a package another one deploys the package. Creating and deploying the package is based on a MSBuild file. This file calls some powershell scripts. In one of the scripts there is a valid error like below. Unfortunatly my MSBuild script doesn't pick it up as an error and continues the rest of the script, which also complete fails of course.

C:\Hudson\TRUNK\buildfiles\deploy\PowershellScripts\ExtractPackages.ps1 : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Packages' 
  because it is an empty string.At line:1 char:249
  + ... nt\ONT\Package '' 
  C:\Hudson\TRUNK\buildfiles ...
  +                    ~~
      + CategoryInfo          : InvalidData: (:) [ExtractPackages.ps1], ParameterBindingValidationException
      + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorEmptyStringNotAllowed,ExtractPackages.ps1

My MSBuild target looks like:

<Target Name="UnpackProducts">
    <Exec Command="$(PowerShellExe) -command &quot;&amp;{ $(PowershellScriptsFolder)\ExtractPackages.ps1 '@(Packages)' ; exit $lastexitcode }&quot;" />     
</Target>

I always thought that the ; exit $lastexitcode solved this issue. But it doesn't, or am I doing something wrong?

For now I've added <Error Condition="@(Packages) == ''" Text="Packages are missing!"/> before calling the actual powershell command to check this specific case. But I'd like to know how to fail the build via powershell with any given error.

stukselbax stukselbax · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-25T10:35:39

Please, try to escape special character (Dollar Sign $), and, probably, ' sign in your command:

<Target Name="UnpackProducts">
    <Exec Command="$(PowerShellExe) -command &quot;&amp;{ $(PowershellScriptsFolder)\ExtractPackages.ps1 %27@(Packages)%27 ; exit %24lastexitcode }&quot;" />
</Target>

Probably that is your mistake.

How to fail the build via powershell

1 Answers