Powershell catch non-terminating errors WITH SilentlyContinue

Question

I would like to catch and handle non-terminating errors but using -ErrorAction SilentlyContiune. I know I need to use -ErrorAction Stop in order to catch a non-terminating error. The problem with that method is that I don't want my code in the try script block to actually stop. I want it to continue but handle the non-terminating errors. I would also like for it to be silent. Is this possible? Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way.

An example of a nonterminating error I would like to handle would be a access denied error to keyword folders from Get-Childitem. Here is a sample.

$getPST = Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse -File -Filter "*.PST" 
$pstSize = @()
Foreach ($pst in $getPST)
{
     If((Get-Acl $pst.FullName).Owner -like "*$ENV:USERNAME")
     {
         $pstSum = $pst | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum      
         $size = "{0:N2}" -f ($pstSum.Sum / 1Kb)
         $pstSize += $size
     }
}
$totalSize = "{0:N2}" -f (($pstSize | Measure-Object -Sum).Sum / 1Kb)

Solution

You cannot use Try/Catch with ErrorAction SilentlyContinue. If you want to silently handle the errors, use Stop for your ErrorAction, and then use the Continue keyword in your Catch block, which will make it continue the loop with the next input object:

$getPST = Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse -File -Filter "*.PST" 
$pstSize = @()
Foreach ($pst in $getPST)
{
 Try {
      If((Get-Acl $pst.FullName -ErrorAction Stop).Owner -like "*$ENV:USERNAME")
       {
        $pstSum = $pst | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum      
        $size = "{0:N2}" -f ($pstSum.Sum / 1Kb)
        $pstSize += $size
       }
     }

 Catch {Continue}
}
$totalSize = "{0:N2}" -f (($pstSize | Measure-Object -Sum).Sum / 1Kb)

Comments

[HiTech]

Thank's for the reply. I'm trying to handle the Get-ChildItems that are outside of my Foreach loop. So if i put a ErrorAction Stop. It will stop on the first error and NOT contiune.

[HiTech]

I mentioned what I'm trying to do in my orignal post. I would like to handle each 'Access Denied' error coming from Get-Childitem. Depending on the filename, i will handle it differently.

[mjolinor]

You can't interrupt the get-childitem. You can set the Error Action to Silently Continue, and use Error Variable to collect the errors and handle them after it finishes.

[HiTech]

That's what i figured. Thank you for clarifying.

[HiTech]

The code block in your post is not the answer to my question but your last comment was what i was looking for. So i will mark this as the answer.