Windows PowerShell Cookbook

Appendix C. PowerShell Automatic Variables

PowerShell defines and populates several variables automatically. These variables let you access information about the execution environment, PowerShell preferences, and more.

Table C-1 provides a listing of these automatic variables and their meanings.

Table C-1. Windows PowerShell automatic variables: Variables automatically used and set by Windows PowerShell

Variable	Meaning
$$	Last token of the last line received by the shell.
$?	Success/fail status of the last operation.
$^	First token of the last line received by the shell.
$_	Current pipeline object in a pipelined script block.
$args	Array of parameters passed to the script, function, or script block.
$confirmPreference	Preference that controls the level of impact that operations may have before requesting confirmation. Supports the values none, low, medium, high. A value of none disables confirmation messages.
$consoleFilename	Filename of the PowerShell console file that configured this session, if one was used.
$currentlyExecutingCommand	Currently executing command, when in a suspended prompt.
$debugPreference	Preference that controls how PowerShell should handle debug output written by a script or cmdlet. Supports the values SilentlyContinue, Continue, Inquire, and Stop.
$error	Array that holds the (terminating and nonterminating) errors generated in the shell.
$errorActionPreference	Preference that controls how PowerShell should handle error output written by a script or cmdlet. Supports the values