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7.4.0 Breaking change: Passing -OutFile $null to Invoke-WebRequest fails #20744
Description
Prerequisites
- Write a descriptive title.
- Make sure you are able to repro it on the latest released version
- Search the existing issues.
- Refer to the FAQ.
- Refer to Differences between Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell.
Steps to reproduce
Minimal version
Invoke-WebRequest "http://www.microsoft.com" -OutFile $null
Version that is more closely related to how that sneaks in as a surprise script breaker
function DoTheThing($file) {
$Params=@{
Uri="http://www.microsoft.com"
OutFile=$file
}
Invoke-WebRequest @Params
}
DoTheThing
Expected behavior
Should return the results of the web call to the output streamActual behavior
Invoke-WebRequest: Cannot validate argument on parameter 'OutFile'. The argument is null or empty. Provide an argument that is not null or empty, and then try the command again.(Works correctly in 7.2.17 and 7.3.3)
### Error details
```console
Exception :
Type : System.Management.Automation.ParameterBindingValidationException
Message : Cannot validate argument on parameter 'OutFile'. The argument is null or empty. Provide an argument that is not null or empty, and then try t
he command again.
ParameterName : OutFile
ParameterType : string
ErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError
Line : 1
Offset : 46
CommandInvocation :
MyCommand : Invoke-WebRequest
ScriptLineNumber : 1
OffsetInLine : 1
HistoryId : 35
Line : Invoke-WebRequest "http://www.microsoft.com" @h
Statement : Invoke-WebRequest "http://www.microsoft.com" @h
PositionMessage : At line:1 char:1
+ Invoke-WebRequest "http://www.microsoft.com" @h
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
InvocationName : Invoke-WebRequest
PipelineLength : 1
PipelinePosition : 1
ErrorRecord :
Exception :
Type : System.Management.Automation.ParentContainsErrorRecordException
Message : Cannot validate argument on parameter 'OutFile'. The argument is null or empty. Provide an argument that is not null or empty, and then try the
command again.
HResult : -2146233087
CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Invoke-WebRequest], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand
InvocationInfo :
MyCommand : Invoke-WebRequest
ScriptLineNumber : 1
OffsetInLine : 46
HistoryId : 35
Line : Invoke-WebRequest "http://www.microsoft.com" @h
Statement : @h
PositionMessage : At line:1 char:46
+ Invoke-WebRequest "http://www.microsoft.com" @h
+ ~~
CommandOrigin : Internal
ScriptStackTrace : at <ScriptBlock>, <No file>: line 1
TargetSite :
Name : BindParameter
DeclaringType : System.Management.Automation.ParameterBinderBase, System.Management.Automation, Version=7.4.0.500, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad
364e35
MemberType : Method
Module : System.Management.Automation.dll
Data : System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal
InnerException :
Type : System.Management.Automation.ValidationMetadataException
ErrorRecord :
Exception :
Type : System.Management.Automation.ParentContainsErrorRecordException
Message : The argument is null or empty. Provide an argument that is not null or empty, and then try the command again.
HResult : -2146233087
CategoryInfo : MetadataError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
FullyQualifiedErrorId : ArgumentIsNull
TargetSite :
Name : Validate
DeclaringType : System.Management.Automation.ValidateNotNullOrAttributeBase
MemberType : Method
Module : System.Management.Automation.dll
Message : The argument is null or empty. Provide an argument that is not null or empty, and then try the command again.
Source : System.Management.Automation
HResult : -2146233087
StackTrace :
at System.Management.Automation.ValidateNotNullOrAttributeBase.Validate(Object arguments, EngineIntrinsics engineIntrinsics)
at System.Management.Automation.ParameterBinderBase.BindParameter(CommandParameterInternal parameter, CompiledCommandParameter parameterMetadata, ParameterBinding
Flags flags)
Source : System.Management.Automation
HResult : -2146233087
StackTrace :
at System.Management.Automation.ParameterBinderBase.BindParameter(CommandParameterInternal parameter, CompiledCommandParameter parameterMetadata, ParameterBinding
Flags flags)
at System.Management.Automation.CmdletParameterBinderController.BindParameter(CommandParameterInternal argument, MergedCompiledCommandParameter parameter, Paramet
erBindingFlags flags)
at System.Management.Automation.CmdletParameterBinderController.BindParameter(UInt32 parameterSets, CommandParameterInternal argument, MergedCompiledCommandParame
ter parameter, ParameterBindingFlags flags)
at System.Management.Automation.CmdletParameterBinderController.BindNamedParameter(UInt32 parameterSets, CommandParameterInternal argument, MergedCompiledCommandP
arameter parameter)
at System.Management.Automation.ParameterBinderController.BindNamedParameters(UInt32 parameterSets, Collection`1 arguments)
at System.Management.Automation.CmdletParameterBinderController.BindCommandLineParametersNoValidation(Collection`1 arguments)
at System.Management.Automation.CmdletParameterBinderController.BindCommandLineParameters(Collection`1 arguments)
at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessor.BindCommandLineParameters()
at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessor.Prepare(IDictionary psDefaultParameterValues)
at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessorBase.DoPrepare(IDictionary psDefaultParameterValues)
at System.Management.Automation.Internal.PipelineProcessor.Start(Boolean incomingStream)
at System.Management.Automation.Internal.PipelineProcessor.SynchronousExecuteEnumerate(Object input)
--- End of stack trace from previous location ---
at System.Management.Automation.Internal.PipelineProcessor.SynchronousExecuteEnumerate(Object input)
at System.Management.Automation.PipelineOps.InvokePipeline(Object input, Boolean ignoreInput, CommandParameterInternal[][] pipeElements, CommandBaseAst[] pipeElem
entAsts, CommandRedirection[][] commandRedirections, FunctionContext funcContext)
at System.Management.Automation.Interpreter.ActionCallInstruction`6.Run(InterpretedFrame frame)
at System.Management.Automation.Interpreter.EnterTryCatchFinallyInstruction.Run(InterpretedFrame frame)
CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Invoke-WebRequest], ParameterBindingValidationException
FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand
InvocationInfo :
MyCommand : Invoke-WebRequest
ScriptLineNumber : 1
OffsetInLine : 46
HistoryId : 35
Line : Invoke-WebRequest "http://www.microsoft.com" @h
Statement : @h
PositionMessage : At line:1 char:46
+ Invoke-WebRequest "http://www.microsoft.com" @h
+ ~~
CommandOrigin : Internal
ScriptStackTrace : at <ScriptBlock>, <No file>: line 1
Environment data
Name Value
---- -----
PSVersion 7.4.0
PSEdition Core
GitCommitId 7.4.0
OS Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 (Ootpa)
Platform Unix
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion 3.0Visuals
No really necessary, literally just paste Invoke-WebRequest "http://www.microsoft.com" -OutFile $null into a shell and watch the error show up
Reacted by francis
Activity
mklement0 commentedon Nov 21, 2023
Invoke-RestMethodis affected too.A breaking change is always unfortunate, and I don't know if this one was intentional or not, but it's worth noting that the original behavior is questionable:
-OutFile $nullas if the the-OutFileparameter hadn't been specified and therefore outputs the response to the success output stream.-PassThruis also specified (which is tantamount to specifying neither-OutFilenor-PassThru).The solution / workaround in the case of the given example function is to only add an
OutFileentry to the splatting hashtable if$fileis non-$null/ non-empty.iSazonov commentedon Nov 22, 2023
Came from #19044
Discussed in #19043
mklement0 commentedon Nov 22, 2023
Thanks, Ilya (@iSazonov). I completely forgot about it and now see that I even actively suggested making this change - it hadn't occurred to me that someone would rely on the old behavior.
nowakca commentedon Nov 22, 2023
Ilya (@iSazonov) Ah, thank you. That's the logic I expected once I saw the behavior. I see it mentioned on https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/tag/v7.4.0-preview.2 . Sorry I didn't work the search well enough to find that before putting in the false alarm.
Michael Klement (@mklement0) If you'd have asked me at the time, I wouldn't even have thought I was depending on it... the joys of a decade+ of code floating around. And yeah, the fix/workaround is pretty easy, assuming you can find all the places it may unexpectedly exist over that span of time. That's going to be "fun" to try to suss out.
So looks like I'm upgrading this system from 7.2 to 7.3 for now, and I'll have a separate project to try to find all the splats and see how they're used.
Thank you both!
fbrosseau commentedon Jan 31, 2024
If anyone finds this issue because of Github Actions / Devops pipeline breaks as of today, it is because the hosted agents started consuming pwsh 7.4. Splatting is the correct solution and will work for old and new powershell (see example a few posts above)
Jaykul commentedon Feb 1, 2024
To be clear, re. francis (@fbrosseau)'s comment:
The only solution is to not pass the parameter unless you're passing a valid file path. Specifically, do not pass $null and do not pass empty string. Using a hashtable and conditionally adding the
fileparameter (as @mkelement wrote in #issuecomment-1821629851) is the easy way to do that.I think we should upgrade that change in the release notes to a breaking change, even though it's unlikely to affect very many people. Does that make sense?
This also points to a general problem with release notes. Users should not have to collate change logs for all the pre-releases to find out what's in a new major release!
I believe the only place where all the changes from the pre-releases are in one place is in the What's New in PowerShell 7.4 article -- could there at least be a link to that article in the GitHub Release notes, since those notes currently only mention changes since the previous pre-release?