Find exit code for executing a cmd command through PowerShell

Question

I am using a silent installation command to install software. I am running this command from PowerShell 3.0.

$silentInstall = C:\\Users\\Admin\\Documents\\Se         


        

Answer 1

It looks like you're running an MSI installer. When running from the console, control is immediately returned while MSI forks a new process to run the installer. There is no way to change this behavior.

What you'll probably need to do is use Get-Process to find a process named msiexec, and wait for it to finish. There is always an msiexec process running, which handles starting new installers, so you'll need to find the msiexec process that started after your install began.

$msiexecd = Get-Process -Name 'msiexec'
C:\Users\Admin\Documents\Setup-2.0.exe exe `
                                       /s `
                                       /v"EULAACCEPTED=\"Yes\" /l*v c:\install.log /qn"
$myMsi = Get-Process -Name 'msiexec' | 
             Where-Object { $_.Id -ne $msiexecd.Id }
$myMsi.WaitForExit()
Write-Verbose $myMsi.ExitCode

Answer 2

It depends on how the EXE file runs - sometimes it will kick off a separate process and return immediately, and in such cases this usually works -

$p = Start-Process -FilePath <path> -ArgumentList <args> -Wait -NoNewWindow -PassThru
$p.ExitCode

Otherwise this usually works -

& <path> <args>
$LASTEXITCODE

Or sometimes this -

& cmd.exe /c <path> <args>
$LASTEXITCODE

Answer 3

You shouldn't need to use Invoke-Expression:

& C:\Users\Admin\Documents\Setup-2.0.exe /s /vEULAACCEPTED=Yes /l*v C:\install.log /qn