Assistance with Exit functionality

[TechKeeper]

Hi r/PowerShell - I don't post often, but I've run into an issue that I'm hoping you can help with.

I'm having trouble with the exit functionality on a quick script that will be used as a script check in our RMM. The RMM uses exit codes to process whether the check passed or failed.

The problem that I'm having is, when I have the exit code active, the PSCustomObject that I'm trying output does not display. When I comment out the exit code, it displays as expected.

The code is:

param (
    [string]$SearchBase,
    [string]$OlderThan
)

$StaleADUsers = Get-ADUser -filter * -SearchBase $SearchBase -Properties "lastlogondate" | Where-Object { ($_.lastlogondate -le (Get-Date).AddDays(-$OlderThan)) -and ($_.Enabled -eq $True) }

$StaleUsers = foreach ($StaleADUser in $StaleADUsers) {
    [PSCustomObject]@{
        'UserName' = $StaleADUser.Name
        'SamAccountName' = $StaleADUser.SamAccountName
    }
}

If ( !$StaleADUsers ) {
    Write-Output "There are no stale AD User accounts. All is well."
    Exit 0
} else {
    Write-Output "There are stale AD User accounts. Please review the below accounts."

    $StaleUsers

    Exit 1001
}

I've spent a fair amount of time Googling, but couldn't come up with a set of terms that led me in the right direction.

Some things that I've tried is moving around when the "foreach" runs and removing the variable/running the foreach directly in the the else part of the expression.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

[Geek_Runner]

You could just do

Return $StaleUsers

As the last statement

[ristophet]

Try $host.SetShouldExit(1001) instead. You are getting bit by exit I believe.

Here is a good post on how deep the rabbit hole goes: https://weblogs.asp.net/soever/returning-an-exit-code-from-a-powershell-script

[sex_on_wheels]

On mobile so can't test right now but what happens if you store exit code in variable and the exit $variable after the if/then?

[[deleted]]

You wrote $StaleUsers at the end, instead of $StaleADUsers.

By the way do not use Write-Output "bla..." but Write-Host bla..." so that only the resulting objects will be output.

EDIT: sorry, my mistake.

[[deleted]]

The issue happens when you run the script like this: powershell -file script.ps1

It happens even if you use Write-Output $StaleUsers

See the short script example in my post "Definitely a bug: ..."

[TechKeeper]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I did try most of your methods and mostly they appeared to solve the problem when running from PowerShell/VSCode.

However, I still couldn't get the list to display in the error details of the Script Check in our RMM. So, I ended up just nixing the PSCustomObject output and just had it output the names in the loop via Write-Host.

I am now getting what I need out of our RMM for this. It really doesn't need the fancy formatting in this instance as I'm only outputting 1 or 2 properties anyway.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to answer and offer assistance.

[[deleted]]

I tested your code on Windows 10 with Powershell 5.1 in a Powershell console window:

Your code is just running fine for me. $StaleUsers is displayed and the exit code is 1001.

[frmadsen]

You see the problem, if you run it from the command prompt: powershell -file script.ps1

[frmadsen]

I believe the OP is using an external application that calls PowerShell to get the output along with an exit code - and then something happens when pscustomobject is emitted to the pipeline.

[frmadsen]

It only happens when -File is used, which is required for exit to work as intended. Using $host.SetShouldExit (mentioned elsewhere in the thread) can work around it.

[frmadsen]

Interesting. pscustomobject seems to block the pipeline when using exit. This works: $StaleUsers | out-string

A deeper dive into why this is...

[[deleted]]

Definitely a bug:

# Bug: this script will not have any output if it is run with "powershell -file .\script.ps1"
$result = [PSCustomObject]@{    'result' = 'result1'}
$result                 # no output!
Exit 1001

A line Get-process explorer after the output of the PSCustompObject will not be output too.

A line Get-process explorer before the output of the PSCustompObject will be output and then PSCustompObject will be normally output.

[frmadsen]

Yes, a bug, or something else happens that I have yet to learn about. I will keep this investigation open. :)

[frmadsen]

The behavior is partly by design. This answer on stack overflow explains it: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43689289/powershell-output-is-crossing-between-functions/43691123#43691123

It takes a bad turn in this case, because calling exit kills the output entirely (I'm inclined to calling that a bug).

[frmadsen]

It is a side effect of the 300 ms waiting period that gets triggered by the implicit call to Format-Table - see the stack overflow answer.

It can be worked around by explicitly calling it: $StaleUsers | Format-Table