Checking for presence of Chocolatey license file in tab expansion PowerShell script generates $error

[aetonsi]

Checklist

• I have verified this is the correct repository for opening this issue.
• I have verified no other issues exist related to my request.

Is Your Feature Request Related To A Problem? Please describe.

Hi, i'd like to suggest a simple micro improvement.
The following lines in the "Tab Expansion" helper check for the presence of a license file:

choco/src/chocolatey.resources/helpers/ChocolateyTabExpansion.ps1

Lines 64 to 70 in 06acb28

	try {
	$licenseFile = Get-Item -Path "$env:ChocolateyInstall\license\chocolatey.license.xml" -ErrorAction Stop
	if ($licenseFile) {
	# Add pro-only commands
	$script:chocoCommands = @(

But it does so by relying on a try{}catched Get-Item -ErrorAction Stop. This doesn't print any error, but it still populates the automatic variable $Error with an unneeded exception.
I am importing chocolateyProfile.psm1 which in turn imports this file, in my powershell's $PROFILE file.
At the end of my profile file i do a simple error checking on $Error. Ever since chocolatey v2 came out, i always have this false positive:

> $error

Get-Item: C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\helpers\ChocolateyTabExpansion.ps1:66:20
Line |
  66 |  … censeFile = Get-Item -Path "$env:ChocolateyInstall\license\chocolatey …
     |                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | Cannot find path 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\license\chocolatey.license.xml' because it does not exist.

This also causes the $Error variable to always start off with 1 item in every single PS session.

Describe The Solution. Why is it needed?

A very simple solution would be to use Test-Path instead of Get-Item, and then use get-item to fetch the file if needed.

Additional Context

Related Issues

(maybe) #2851

[corbob]

Well this is an interesting one... I am seeing this on a VM, but it looks like there should be Pester tests testing this (at least within PowerShell 2... As well as this code:

choco/src/chocolatey.resources/helpers/ChocolateyTabExpansion.ps1

Lines 113 to 119 in 06acb28

	catch {
	# Remove the error that last occurred from $error so it doesn't cause any
	# issues for users, as we're deliberately ignoring it.
	if ($error.Count -gt 0) {
	$error.RemoveAt(0)
	}
	}

Which should be removing the error (and when I manually run those, the error is removed).

[aetonsi]

Well i don't know why the $error.removeat(0) doesn't work, the error just spills into the powershell session.
Maybe that $error references a local $error (like $local:error), and so my global $error is not affected by .removeat(0)? Just speculating..
Anyway, thanks for the fix, will this be integrated in a minor or in a patch version?

[corbob]

Anyway, thanks for the fix, will this be integrated in a minor or in a patch version?

@aetonsi the fix is assigned to the 2.1.0 milestone, so it should come out with that release when it is ready. At this point I can't say for sure when that might be, but I do expect it to be the next release.

In the meantime, a workaround you could consider is moving the test for errors to before the Chocolatey profile loading, and thus circumvent this issue.

[aetonsi]

Thank you again, have a nice day.

[choco-bot]

🎉 This issue has been resolved in version 2.1.0 🎉

The release is available on:

• GitHub Release
• Chocolatey Package

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