CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
weloytty
weloytty

Reputation: 6098

How can I set a powershell script to only show short error descriptions

Is there a way to get only the error message when displaying error descriptions while running a script?

I have a script that runs, and when an error occurs, I get error messages at various times, for example, if I don't pass a parameter to a function I wrote, I'll get:

    No Setup Location specified (i.e. \\server\share\folder)
At \\server\share\folder\script.ps1:9 char:31
+     [string] $setupHome = $(throw <<<<  "No Setup Location specified (i.e. \\server\share\folder)")
    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (No Setup Locati...ojects\something):String) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : No Setup Location specified (i.e. \\server\share\folder)

This is fine, but what I'd like is to be able to set a preference (like ErrorAction) that only will show me the error message, and not all of the extra goo that is nice to have, but clutters up my console. So instead of the above, I'd like to only see that first line:

No Setup Location specified (i.e. \\server\share\folder)

Upvotes: 5

Views: 3236

Answers (3)

mjolinor
mjolinor

Reputation: 68243

You can set $ErrorView to 'CategoryView' to get less verbose error reporting:

$ErrorView = 'CategoryView'
Get-Item foo

ObjectNotFound: (C:\foo:String) [Get-Item], ItemNotFoundException

The default is 'NormalView', which provides more verbose output:

$ErrorView = 'NormalView'

Get-Item foo

ObjectNotFound: (C:\foo:String) [Get-Item], ItemNotFoundException
Get-Item : Cannot find path 'C:\foo' because it does not exist.
At line:8 char:1
+ Get-Item foo
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (C:\foo:String) [Get-Item], ItemNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetItemCommand

Upvotes: 5

Tony Hinkle
Tony Hinkle

Reputation: 4742

Enclose the code in a try/catch block, and in the catch block print the first line that is contained in the $error variable with $error.Exception

Upvotes: 2

Naigel
Naigel

Reputation: 9644

You can use trap function, put it at the beginning of your script an do some action each time an exception occurs, something like that

trap {
    Write-Host $Error[0].PSMessageDetails
    continue;
}

Upvotes: 1

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