Query a thrown exception from a C# App in PowerShell

Question

I'm running an app in PowerShell like so:

$exe = "C:\blah\build\blah\Release\blahblah.exe"
&$exe scheduledRun sliceBicUp useEditionId

blahblah.exe is a C# .NET 4.5 Console App. Now I know this executable can throw errors etc. Can I catch these errors/exceptions within the PowerShell script itself?

Basically i want the PowerShell script to detect an error/exception has occurred and action something, like email our Helpdesk for example.

Answer 1

As @Liam mentioned, errors from external programs are not exceptions. If the executable terminates with a proper exit code you could check the automatic variable $LastExitCode and react to its value:

& $exe scheduledRun sliceBicUp useEditionId
switch ($LastExitCode) {
  0 { 'success' }
  1 { 'error A' }
  2 { 'error B' }
  default { 'catchall' }
}

The only other thing you could do is parse the output for error messages:

$output = &$exe scheduledRun sliceBicUp useEditionId *>&1
if ($output -like '*some error message*') {
  'error XY occurred'
}

Answer 2

you can use this code. When .Net program exit then error is passed to ps script

   $exe = "C:\Users\johnn\OneDrive\Documents\visual studio 2015\Projects\test\test\bin\Release\test.exe"

   $pinfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
   $pinfo.FileName = $exe
   $pinfo.RedirectStandardError = $true
   $pinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
   $pinfo.UseShellExecute = $false
   $pinfo.Arguments = "localhost"
   $p = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
   $p.StartInfo = $pinfo
   $p.Start() | Out-Null
   $p.WaitForExit()
   $stdout = $p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()
   $stderr = $p.StandardError.ReadToEnd()
   Write-Host "stdout: $stdout"
   Write-Host "stderr: $stderr"
   Write-Host "exit code: " + $p.ExitCode