Invoking arbitrary shell (cmd) commands with retries in PowerShell
EDIT– I initially tried to support execution of PowerShell scripts, functions, and cmdlets in the code below. However, it turns out that they behave too differently so I wrote a separate post on it: https://www.ohadsoft.com/2016/04/invoking-arbitrary-powershell-commands-with-retries-in-powershell/.
It may sound ironic, but executing shell (cmd) commands from PowerShell is not always trivial. There are various possibilities including Start-Process, [Diagnostics.Process]::Start, the call operator (&), and others. Each has its own quirks regarding exit codes, output redirection, argument escaping, and more. For a taste of the issues you might run into, see this blog post by edgylogic.
Having played around with most (all?) of the options, I finally settled down on what I percieve to be the most robust, versatile, and simple way of doing it. The (advanced) function below will allow the following:
- Print the command before execution.
- Inspect the exit code and error stream to determine failure.
- Retry the command in configurable intervals upon failure.
- Pass multiple parameters.
- Emit the command’s output to the pipe for further processing.
- Set the execution status ($?) to
$Falsein case of failre on all retries.
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Calls a shell (cmd) command with retries
.DESCRIPTION
The Call-CommandWithRetries function calls shell (cmd) commands using the provided parameters, with optional retries in configurable intervals upon failures.
.PARAMETER Command
The command to call.
.PARAMETER Arguments
Arguments to pass when invoking the comand.
.PARAMETER TrustExitCode
Trust the command's exit code for the purpose of determining whether it was successful or not.
If this parameter is $False, a non-empty stderr will also be considered a failure.
.PARAMETER RetrySleepSeconds
Time in seconds to sleep between retry attempts in case of command failure.
.PARAMETER MaxAttempts
Maximum number of retry attempts in case of command failure.
.PARAMETER PrintCommand
Determines whether or not to print the full command to the host before execution.
.INPUTS
None. You cannot pipe objects to Call-CommandWithRetries.
.OUTPUTS
The output of the last command execution.
.EXAMPLE
Use cURL for Windows to download the latest NuGet command-line client
C:\PS> Call-CommandWithRetries "curl.exe" @("--fail", "-O", "https://dist.nuget.org/win-x86-commandline/latest/nuget.exe")
#>
function Call-CommandWithRetries
{
[CmdletBinding()]
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
[string]$Command,
[Array]$Arguments,
[bool]$TrustExitCode = $True,
[int]$RetrySleepSeconds = 10,
[int]$MaxAttempts = 10,
[bool]$PrintCommand = $True
)
Process
{
$attempt = 0
while ($true)
{
Write-Host $(if ($PrintCommand) {"Executing: $Command $Arguments"} else {"Executing command..."})
& $Command $Arguments 2>&1 | tee -Variable output | Write-Host
$stderr = $output | where { $_ -is [System.Management.Automation.ErrorRecord] }
if ( ($LASTEXITCODE -eq 0) -and ($TrustExitCode -or !($stderr)) )
{
Write-Host "Command executed successfully"
return $output
}
Write-Host "Command failed with exit code ($LASTEXITCODE) and stderr: $stderr" -ForegroundColor Yellow
if ($attempt -eq $MaxAttempts)
{
$ex = new-object System.Management.Automation.CmdletInvocationException "All retry attempts exhausted"
$category = [System.Management.Automation.ErrorCategory]::LimitsExceeded
$errRecord = new-object System.Management.Automation.ErrorRecord $ex, "CommandFailed", $category, $Command
$psCmdlet.WriteError($errRecord)
return $output
}
$attempt++;
Write-Host "Retrying test execution [#$attempt/$MaxAttempts] in $RetrySleepSeconds seconds..."
Start-Sleep -s $RetrySleepSeconds
}
}
}
References:
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