How to troubleshoot a 'System.Management.Automation.CmdletInvocationException' - powershell

Question

Does anyone know how best to determine the specific underlying cause of this exception?
Consider a WCF service that is supposed to use Powershell 2.0 remoting to execute MSBuild on remote machines. In both cases the scripting environments are being called in-process (via C# for Powershell and via Powershell for MSBuild), rather than 'shelling-out' - this was a specific design decision to avoid command-line hell as well as to enable passing actual objects into the Powershell script.
An abridged version of the Powershell script that calls MSBuild is shown below:
function Run-MSBuild
{
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.Build.Engine")
$engine = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.Engine
$engine.BinPath = "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5"
$project = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.Project($engine, "3.5")
$project.Load("deploy.targets")
$project.InitialTargets = "DoStuff"
# Process the input object
while ($input.MoveNext())
{
# Set MSBuild Properties & Item
}
# Optionally setup some loggers (have also tried it without any loggers)
$consoleLogger = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.ConsoleLogger
$engine.RegisterLogger($consoleLogger)
$fileLogger = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.FileLogger
$fileLogger.Parameters = "verbosity=diagnostic"
$engine.RegisterLogger($fileLogger)
# Run the build - this is the line that throws a CmdletInvocationException
$result = $project.Build()
$engine.Shutdown()
}
When running the above script from a PS command prompt it all works fine. However, as soon as the script is executed from C# it fails with the above exception.
The C# code being used to call Powershell is shown below (remoting functionality removed for simplicity's sake):
// Build the DTO object that will be passed to Powershell
dto = SetupDTO()
RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfig = RunspaceConfiguration.Create();
using (Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfig))
{
runspace.Open();
IList errors;
using (var scriptInvoker = new RunspaceInvoke(runspace))
{
// The Powershell script lives in a file that gets compiled as an embedded resource
TextReader tr = new StreamReader(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("MyScriptResource"));
string script = tr.ReadToEnd();
// Load the script into the Runspace
scriptInvoker.Invoke(script);
// Call the function defined in the script, passing the DTO as an input object
var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("$input | Run-MSBuild", dto, out errors);
}
}
NOTE: The overload of the Invoke() method allows you to pass in an IEnumerable object and it takes care of instantiating an enumerator to in the Powershell variable '$input' - this then gets passed into the script via the pipeline. Here are some supporting links:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms569104(VS.85).aspx
http://knicksmith.blogspot.com/2007/03/managing-exchange-2007-recipients-with.html (jump to the 'Passing an Input Object to the Runspace' section)
Assuming that the issue was related to MSBuild outputting something that the Powershell runspace can't cope with, I have also tried the following variations to the second .Invoke() call:
var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("$input | Run-MSBuild | Out-String", dto, out errors);
var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("$input | Run-MSBuild | Out-Null", dto, out errors);
var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("Run-MSBuild | Out-String");
var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("Run-MSBuild | Out-String");
var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("Run-MSBuild | Out-Null");
var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("Run-MSBuild");
Note how the underlying issue still occurs irrespective of whether an input object is used.
I've also looked at using a custom PSHost (based on this sample: http://blogs.msdn.com/daiken/archive/2007/06/22/hosting-windows-powershell-sample-code.aspx), but during debugging I was unable to see any 'interesting' calls to it being made.
Do the great and the good of Stackoverflow have any insight that might save my sanity?

Answer 1

I can get the following code to work but I get a warning that MSBUILD engine wants to be run on a STA thread. Unfortunately the thread created by the PowerShell engine to execute the script is MTA. That said, my little sample works:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Management.Automation;
using System.Collections;
namespace RunspaceInvokeExp
{
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
var script = #"
function Run-MSBuild
{
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(""Microsoft.Build.Engine"")
$engine = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.Engine
$engine.BinPath = ""C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5""
$project = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.Project($engine, ""3.5"")
$project.Load(""deploy.targets"")
$project.InitialTargets = ""DoStuff""
# Process the input object
while ($input.MoveNext())
{
# Set MSBuild Properties & Item
}
# Optionally setup some loggers (have also tried it without any loggers)
$consoleLogger = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.ConsoleLogger
$engine.RegisterLogger($consoleLogger)
$fileLogger = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.FileLogger
$fileLogger.Parameters = ""verbosity=diagnostic""
$engine.RegisterLogger($fileLogger)
# Run the build - this is the line that throws a CmdletInvocationException
$result = $project.Build()
$engine.Shutdown()
}
";
using (var invoker = new RunspaceInvoke())
{
invoker.Invoke(script);
IList errors;
Collection<PSObject> results = invoker.Invoke(#"$input | Run-MSBuild", new[] {0}, out errors);
Array.ForEach<PSObject>(results.ToArray(), Console.WriteLine);
}
}
}
}
Which line of your C# code fails? Also, can you post some of the specifics from the exception. You can work around the MTA thread issue by doing something like this:
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Management.Automation;
using System.Management.Automation.Runspaces;
namespace RunspaceInvokeExp
{
class Program
{
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
var script = #"
function Run-MSBuild
{
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(""Microsoft.Build.Engine"")
$engine = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.Engine
$engine.BinPath = ""C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5""
$project = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.Project($engine, ""3.5"")
$project.Load(""deploy.targets"")
$project.InitialTargets = ""DoStuff""
# Process the input object
while ($input.MoveNext())
{
# Set MSBuild Properties & Item
}
# Optionally setup some loggers (have also tried it without any loggers)
$consoleLogger = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.ConsoleLogger
$engine.RegisterLogger($consoleLogger)
$fileLogger = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.FileLogger
$fileLogger.Parameters = ""verbosity=diagnostic""
$engine.RegisterLogger($fileLogger)
# Run the build - this is the line that throws a CmdletInvocationException
$result = $project.Build()
$engine.Shutdown()
}
Run-MSBuild
";
Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace();
Runspace.DefaultRunspace = runspace;
runspace.Open();
EngineIntrinsics engine = runspace.SessionStateProxy.
GetVariable("ExecutionContext") as EngineIntrinsics;
ScriptBlock scriptblock =
engine.InvokeCommand.NewScriptBlock(script);
Collection<PSObject> results = scriptblock.Invoke(new[] { 0 });
Array.ForEach<PSObject>(results.ToArray(), Console.WriteLine);
runspace.Close(); // Really should be in a finally block
}
}
}