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Creating new directory in WhatIf mode fails

See original GitHub issue

General Info

This is a regression from PS 5.

I think it’s a bug and not a feature because the behavior is inconsistent between New-Item and Copy-Item. Also, for -ItemType File it behaves fine, whereas for -ItemType Directory it fails.

Scenario 1

Steps to reproduce

New-Item '\\non-existing-path\newObject' -ItemType Directory -Whatif:$True

Expected behavior

What if: Performing the operation "Create Directory" on target "Destination: \\non-existing-path\newObject".

Actual behavior

New-Item: The specified path is invalid. : '\\non-existing-path\newObject'

Environment data

PSVersion                      7.0.3
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    7.0.3
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.19041
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Scenario 2

The same problem exists for a valid shared folder when there are no permissions:

Steps to reproduce

New-Item  '\\existing-path-with-no-permissions\newObject' -ItemType Directory -Whatif:$True

Expected behavior

What if: Performing the operation "Create Directory" on target "Destination: \\existing-path-with-no-permissions\newObject".

Actual behavior

New-Item: The user name or password is incorrect. : '\\existing-path-with-no-permissions\newObject'

Issue Analytics

State:
Created 3 years ago
Comments:10 (2 by maintainers)

Top GitHub Comments

3reactions

jborean93commented, Sep 11, 2020

it’s an (undocumented?) change from PowerShell 5, so it seems to be a regression,

Then I would consider a bug that was fixed.

other cmdlets behave differently

Then those other cmdlets should be fixed if possible. Note this may not be possible because as @SeeminglyScience has mentioned it may be a check done by the actual operation not a check by the cmdlet itself.

Ultimately if you’ve asked to do something and are checking what would happen then it should fail if it’s not possible.

1reaction

FriedrichWeinmanncommented, Sep 15, 2020

agreeing with @jborean93 here. The only “promise” -WhatIf gives is that it will not perform any actual changes. I see no mandate to hide errors that happen in preparatory steps

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