Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripting - Third Edition

Terminating errors

A terminating error stops a pipeline processing; once an error is thrown, everything stops. A terminating error might appear as the result of using throw. In the following function, the second Write-Host statement will never execute:

PS> function ThrowError {>>     Write-Host 'First'>>     throw 'Error'>>     Write-Host 'Second'>> }PS> ThrowErrorFirstErrorAt line:3 char:5+ throw 'Error'+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (Error:String) [], RuntimeException+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Error

Terminating errors are typically used to convey that something unexpected and terminal has occurred, such as a catastrophic failure that prevents a script continuing.