Powershell Start Process, Wait with Timeout, Kill and Get Exit Code - powershell

Question

I want to repeatedly execute a program in a loop.
Sometimes, the program crashes, so I want to kill it so the next iteration can correctly start. I determine this via timeout.
I have the timeout working but cannot get the Exit Code of the program, which I also need to determine its result.
Before, I did not wait with timeout, but just used -wait in Start-Process, but this made the script hang if the started program crashed. With this setup I could correctly get the exit code though.
I am executing from ISE.
for ($i=0; $i -le $max_iterations; $i++)
{
$proc = Start-Process -filePath $programtorun -ArgumentList $argumentlist -workingdirectory $programtorunpath -PassThru
# wait up to x seconds for normal termination
Wait-Process -Timeout 300 -Name $programname
# if not exited, kill process
if(!$proc.hasExited) {
echo "kill the process"
#$proc.Kill() <- not working if proc is crashed
Start-Process -filePath "taskkill.exe" -Wait -ArgumentList '/F', '/IM', $fullprogramname
}
# this is where I want to use exit code but it comes in empty
if ($proc.ExitCode -ne 0) {
# update internal error counters based on result
}
}
How can I
Start a process
Wait for it to orderly execute and finish
Kill it if it is crashed (e. g. hits timeout)
get exit code of process

Answer 1

You can terminate the process more simply using $proc | kill or $proc.Kill(). Be aware, that you won't be able to retrieve a exit code in this case, you should rather just update the internal error counter:
for ($i=0; $i -le $max_iterations; $i++)
{
$proc = Start-Process -filePath $programtorun -ArgumentList $argumentlist -workingdirectory $programtorunpath -PassThru
# keep track of timeout event
$timeouted = $null # reset any previously set timeout
# wait up to x seconds for normal termination
$proc | Wait-Process -Timeout 4 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -ErrorVariable timeouted
if ($timeouted)
{
# terminate the process
$proc | kill
# update internal error counter
}
elseif ($proc.ExitCode -ne 0)
{
# update internal error counter
}
}