Try/Catch Script Failing to output $error to file

Question

I am working on a script which will do the following:

1. Check if a service (in this case XboxGipSvc) is running
2. If service is running, do nothing
3. If service is not running, attempt to start service
4. If service fails to start, catch error and log to C:\TEMP\RemediationLog.log

I believe I have done my try/catch block correctly, however even though im getting errors when I run the try block, it does not log $error to the file as expected.

Heres my code:

$Error.Clear()

try{
    $Airlock1 = Get-Service -Name XboxGipSvc -ErrorAction Stop
        while ($Airlock1.Status -ne "Running"){
                                                                Start-Service $Airlock1 -ErrorAction Stop
                                                                Write-Host $Airlock1.Status
                                                                Write-Host "Service is Starting"
                                                                Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
                                                                $Airlock1.Refresh()
                                                                if ($Airlock1.Status -eq "Running"){Write-Host "Service is now running"}
                                                            }
   }
catch [Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StartServiceCommand]{
                                                                {     
                                                                    if ($error -ne $null)
                                                                        {
                                                                            $test = Test-Path -path C:\TEMP\RemediationLog.log
                                                                            if ($test -eq $false){New-Item -Path C:\TEMP\RemediationLog.log}
                                                                            $error | Out-File -FilePath C:\TEMP\RemediationLog.log -Force -Append
                                                                            Write-Host $error.Exception[0]
                                                                        }
                                                                }
                                                         }

Answer 1

In addition to @Daniel's helpful comment:

Using multiple catch statements

A try statement can have any number of catch blocks. For example, your script has a try block that checks the $Airlock1.Status has only a [Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StartServiceCommand] catch block but might simply fail on an different error and therefore might need a general catch block:

try {
    ...
}
catch [Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ServiceCommandException] {
    ...
}
catch {
    Throw "An unexpected error occurred that isn't logged: $_"
}

Accessing exception information

Within a catch block, the current error can be accessed using $_, which is also known as $PSItem. The object is of type ErrorRecord.

$Error

$Error in an automated variable which contains an array of error objects that represent the most recent errors. The most recent error is the first error object in the array $Error[0].

Meaning that you probably just want to use the current item ($_) in the Catch block and format all the error information to a single line. Something like:

$ErrorMessage = '{0} at {1}:{2} char: {3}' -f
    $_.exception.Message,
    $_.InvocationInfo.ScriptName,
    $_.InvocationInfo.ScriptLineNumber,
    $_.InvocationInfo.OffsetInLine
$ErrorMessage |Out-File -FilePath C:\TEMP\RemediationLog.log -Force -Append

^{(note that this is quiet similar to how the newer PowerShell (Core) versions format an ErrorRecord output)}

For what you tried

"It does not log $error to the file as expected'
What do you expect and what is the actually output you experience?
Note that the output might differ depending on the PowerShell version, but should be similar to what is shown when you just type $Error at the PowerShell prompt.

But if you really intended to list all the errors since the $Error.Clear, you might do something like this:

$Error |ForEach-Object {
    '{0} at {1}:{2} char: {3}' -f
        $_.exception.Message,
        $_.InvocationInfo.ScriptName,
        $_.InvocationInfo.ScriptLineNumber,
        $_.InvocationInfo.OffsetInLine
} |Out-File -FilePath C:\TEMP\RemediationLog.log -Force -Append