PowerShell

The PowerShell build runner is specifically designed to run PowerShell scripts.

PowerShell Settings

Option	Description
Version	List of PowerShell versions supported by TeamCity. It is passed to `powershell.exe` as the `-Version` command line argument.
PowerShell run mode	Select the desired execution mode on a x64 machine.
Error Output	Specify how the error output is handled by the runner: error: any output to `stderr` is handled as an error warning: default; any output to `stderr` is handled as a warning To fail a build if "an error message is logged by build runner" (see Build Failure Conditions), change the default setting of the Error Output selector from warning to error.
Working directory	Specify the path to the build working directory.
Script	Select whether you want to enter the script right in TeamCity, or specify a path to the script: File: Enter the path to a PowerShell file. The path has to be relative to the checkout directory. Source: Enter the PowerShell script source. Note that TeamCity parameter references will be replaced in the code. There is an issue with PowerShell 2.0 not returning the correct exit code when the script contains explicitly defined parameters. As a workaround, either upgrade your PowerShell or to use `[Environment]::Exit(code)`.
Script execution mode	Specify the PowerShell script execution mode. By default, PowerShell may not allow execution of arbitrary `.ps1` files. TeamCity will try to supply the `-ExecutionPolicy ByPass` argument. If you've selected Execute .ps1 script from external file, your script should be signed or you should make PowerShell allow execution of arbitrary `.ps1` files. If the execution policy doesn't allow running your scripts, select Put script into PowerShell stdin mode to avoid this issue. The `-Command` mode is deprecated and is not recommended for use with PowerShell of version greater than 1.0
Script arguments	Available if "Script execution mode" option is set to "Execute .ps1 script from external file". Specify here arguments to be passed into PowerShell script.
Additional command line parameters	Specify parameters to be passed to `powershell.exe`.

Interaction with TeamCity

Attention must be paid, when using PowerShell to interact with TeamCity through service messages. PowerShell tends to wrap strings written to the console with commands like Write-Output, Write-Error and similar (see TW-15080). To avoid this behavior, either use the Write-Host command, or adjust the buffer length manually:

function Set-PSConsole {
  if (Test-Path env:TEAMCITY_VERSION) {
    try {
      $rawUI = (Get-Host).UI.RawUI
      $m = $rawUI.MaxPhysicalWindowSize.Width
      $rawUI.BufferSize = New-Object Management.Automation.Host.Size ([Math]::max($m, 500), $rawUI.BufferSize.Height)
      $rawUI.WindowSize = New-Object Management.Automation.Host.Size ($m, $rawUI.WindowSize.Height)
    } catch {}
  }
}

Error Handling

Due to this issue in PowerShell itself which causes zero exit code to be always returned to a caller, TeamCity cannot always detect whether the script has executed correctly or not. We recommend several approaches that can help in detecting script execution failures:

Manually catching exceptions and explicitly returning exit code Since TeamCity 9.0 the PowerShell plugin does not use the cmd wrapper around powershell.exe. It makes returning the explicit exit code possible.
try { # your code here } Catch { $ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message Write-Output $ErrorMessage exit(1) }

Setting to and adding build failure condition In case syntax errors and exceptions are present, PowerShell writes them to stderr. To make TeamCity fail the build, set Error Output option to Error and add a build failure condition that will fail the build on any error output.

Failing build on certain message in build log Add a build failure condition that will fail the build on a certain message (say "POWERSHELL ERROR") in the build log.
$ErrorMessage = "POWERSHELL ERROR" try { # your code here } Catch { Write-Output $ErrorMessage exit(1) }

Development Links

The PowerShell support is implemented as an open-source plugin. For development links refer to the plugin's page.

Last modified: 20 April 2023