Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripting - Third Edition

Inconsistent error behavior

The different methods PowerShell exposes to terminate a script aren't entirely consistent and may lead to confused behavior.

When throw is used to raise a terminating error, it'll stop the current script and anything that called it. In the following example, child2 will never execute:

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Continue' 
function caller { 
    child1 
    child2 
} 
function child1 { 
    throw 'Failed' 
    'child1' 
} 
function child2 { 
    'child2' 
} 
caller 

When the ThrowTerminatingError method is used, processing within child1 stops, but the caller function continues. This is demonstrated as follows:

function caller { child1 child2 } function child1 { [CmdletBinding()] param ( ) $errorRecord = [System.Management.Automation.ErrorRecord]::new( ...