Start-Transaction
Starts a transaction.
Syntax
Start-Transaction
[-Timeout <Int32>]
[-Independent]
[-RollbackPreference <RollbackSeverity>]
[-WhatIf]
[-Confirm]
[<CommonParameters>]
Description
The Start-Transaction
cmdlet starts a transaction, which is a series of commands that are managed
as a unit. A transaction can be completed, or committed. Alternatively, it can be completely undone,
or rolled back, so that any data changed by the transaction is restored to its original state.
Because the commands in a transaction are managed as a unit, either all commands are committed or
all commands are rolled back.
By default, if any command in the transaction generates an error, transactions are rolled back automatically. You can use the RollbackPreference parameter to change this behavior.
The cmdlets used in a transaction must be designed to support transactions. Cmdlets that support transactions have a UseTransaction parameter. To perform transactions in a provider, the provider must support transactions. The Windows PowerShell Registry provider in Windows Vista and later versions of the Windows operating system supports transactions. You can also use the Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Management.TransactedString class to include expressions in transactions on any version of the Windows system that supports Windows PowerShell. Other Windows PowerShell providers can also support transactions.
Only one transaction can be active at a time. If you start a new, independent transaction while a transaction is in progress, the new transaction becomes the active transaction, and you must commit or roll back the new transaction before you make any changes to the original transaction.
Start-Transaction
cmdlet is one of a set of cmdlets that support the transactions feature in
Windows PowerShell. For more information, see about_Transactions.
Examples
Example 1: Start and roll back a transaction
Set-Location hkcu:\software
Start-Transaction
New-Item "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
New-ItemProperty "ContosoCompany" -Name "MyKey" -Value 123 -UseTransaction
Undo-Transaction
These commands start and then roll back a transaction. Because the transaction is rolled back, no changes are made to the registry.
Example 2: Start and complete a transaction
Set-Location hkcu:\software
Start-Transaction
New-Item "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
New-ItemProperty "ContosoCompany" -Name "MyKey" -Value 123 -UseTransaction
Complete-Transaction
These commands start and then complete a transaction. No changes are made to the registry until the
Complete-Transaction
command is used.
Example 3: Use different rollback preferences
Set-Location HKCU:\software
Start-Transaction
New-Item -Path "NoPath" -Name "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
New-Item -Path . -Name "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
Start-Transaction -RollbackPreference never
New-Item -Path "NoPath" -Name "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
New-Item -Path . -Name "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
# Start-Transaction (-rollbackpreference error)
Start-Transaction
New-Item -Path "NoPath" -Name "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
New-Item : The registry key at the specified path does not exist.
At line:1 char:9
+ new-item <<<< -Path NoPath -Name ContosoCompany -UseTransaction
New-Item -Path . -Name "Contoso" -UseTransaction
New-Item : Cannot use transaction. The transaction has been rolled back or has timed out.
At line:1 char:9
+ New-Item <<<< -Path . -Name ContosoCompany -UseTransaction
# Start-Transaction (-rollbackpreference never)
Start-Transaction -RollbackPreference never
New-Item -Path "NoPath" -Name "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
New-Item : The registry key at the specified path does not exist.
At line:1 char:9
+ New-Item <<<< -Path NoPath -Name "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
New-Item -Path . -Name "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
SKC VC Name Property
--- -- ---- --------
0 0 ContosoCompany {}
Complete-Transaction
# Succeeds
This example demonstrates the effect of changing the RollbackPreference parameter value.
In the first set of commands, Start-Transaction
does not use RollbackPreference. As a result,
the default value (Error) is used. When an error occurs in a transaction command, that is, the
specified path does not exist, the transaction is automatically rolled back.
In the second set of commands, Start-Transaction
uses RollbackPreference with a value of
Never. As a result, when an error occurs in a transaction command, the transaction is still active
and can be completed successfully.
Because most transactions must be performed without error, the default value of RollbackPreference is typically preferred.
Example 4: Use this cmdlet while a transaction is in progress
Set-Location HKCU:\software
Start-Transaction
New-Item "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
Start-Transaction
Get-Transaction
New-Item "ContosoCompany2" -UseTransaction
Complete-Transaction
Complete-Transaction
Get-Transaction
RollbackPreference SubscriberCount Status
------------------ --------------- ------
Error 2 Active
This example shows the effect of using Start-Transaction
while a transaction is in progress.
The effect is much like joining the transaction in progress.
Although this is a simplified command, this scenario frequently occurs when the transaction involves running a script that includes a complete transaction.
The first Start-Transaction
command starts the transaction. The first New-Item
command is part
of the transaction.
The second Start-Transaction
command adds a new subscriber to the transaction. The
Get-Transaction
command now returns a transaction with a subscriber count of 2. The second
New-Item
command is part of the same transaction.
No changes are made to the registry until the whole transaction is completed. To complete the
transaction, you must enter two Complete-Transaction
commands, one for each subscriber. If you
were to roll back the transaction at any point, all the transaction would be rolled back for both
subscribers.
Example 5: Start an independent transaction while one is in progress
Set-Location HKCU:\software
Start-Transaction
New-Item "ContosoCompany" -UseTransaction
Start-Transaction -Independent
Get-Transaction
Undo-Transaction
New-ItemProperty -Path "ContosoCompany" -Name "MyKey" -Value 123 -UseTransaction
Complete-Transaction
Get-ChildItem contoso*
Get-Transaction
RollbackPreference SubscriberCount Status
------------------ --------------- ------
Error 1 Active
Undo-Transaction
New-ItemProperty -Path "ContosoCompany" -Name "MyKey" -Value 123 -UseTransaction
MyKey
-----
123
Complete-Transaction
Get-ChildItem contoso*
Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
SKC VC Name Property
--- -- ---- --------
0 1 MyCompany {MyKey}
This example shows the effect of using the Independent parameter of Start-Transaction
to start a transaction while another transaction is in progress.
In this case, the new transaction is rolled back without affecting the original transaction.
Although the transactions are logically independent, because only one transaction can be active at a time, you must roll back or commit the newest transaction before resuming work on the original transaction.
The first set of commands starts a transaction.
The New-Item
command is part of the first transaction.
In the second set of commands, the Start-Transaction
command uses the Independent parameter.
The Get-Transaction
command that follows shows the transaction object for the active transaction, which is the newest one.
The subscriber count is equal to 1, that shows that the transactions are unrelated.
When the active transaction is rolled back by using an Undo-Transaction
command, the original transaction becomes active again.
The New-ItemProperty
command, which is part of the original transaction, finishes without error, and the original transaction can be completed by using the Complete-Transaction
command.
As a result, the registry is changed.
Example 6: Run commands that are not part of a transaction
Set-Location hkcu:\software
Start-Transaction
New-Item "ContosoCompany1" -UseTransaction
New-Item "ContosoCompany2"
New-Item "ContosoCompany3" -UseTransaction
Get-ChildItem contoso*
Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
SKC VC Name Property
--- -- ---- --------
0 0 ContosoCompany2 {}
Complete-Transaction
Get-ChildItem contoso*
Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
SKC VC Name Property
--- -- ---- --------
0 0 ContosoCompany1 {}
0 0 ContosoCompany2 {}
0 0 ContosoCompany3 {}
This example demonstrates that commands that are submitted while a transaction is in progress can be included in the transaction or not included. Only commands that use the UseTransaction parameter are part of the transaction.
The first and third New-Item
commands use the UseTransaction parameter. These commands are
part of the transaction. Because the second New-Item
command does not use the UseTransaction
parameter, it is not part of the transaction.
The first Get-ChildItem command shows the effect. The second New-Item
command is completed
immediately, but the first and third New-Item
commands are not effective until the transaction is
committed.
The Complete-Transaction
command commits the transaction. As a result, the second Get-ChildItem
command shows that all of the new items are added to the registry.
Example 7: Roll back a transaction that does not finish in a specified time
Start-Transaction -Timeout 2
# Wait two minutes...
Get-Transaction
New-Item HKCU:\Software\ContosoCompany -UseTransaction
Start-Transaction -Timeout 2
# Wait two minutes...
Get-Transaction
RollbackPreference SubscriberCount Status
------------------ --------------- -----------
Error 1 RolledBack
New-Item HKCU:\Software\ContosoCompany -UseTransaction
New-Item : Cannot use transaction. The transaction has been rolled back or has timed out.
At line:1 char:9
+ new-item <<<< MyCompany -UseTransaction
This command uses the Timeout parameter of Start-Transaction
to start a transaction that must
be completed within two minutes. If the transaction is not finished when the time-out expires, it is
rolled back automatically.
When the time-out expires, you are not notified, but the Status property of the transaction object is set to RolledBack and commands that use the UseTransaction parameter fail.
Parameters
-Confirm
Prompts you for confirmation before running the cmdlet.
Type: | SwitchParameter |
Aliases: | cf |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | False |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-Independent
Indicates that this cmdlet starts a transaction that is independent of any transactions in progress.
By default, if you use Start-Transaction
while another transaction is in progress, a new
subscriber is added to the transaction in progress. This parameter has an effect only when a
transaction is already in progress in the session.
By default, if you use Start-Transaction
while a transaction is in progress, the existing
transaction object is reused and the subscriber count is incremented. The effect is much like
joining the original transaction. An Undo-Transaction
command rolls back the whole the transaction.
To complete the transaction, you must enter a Complete-Transaction
command for each subscriber.
Because most transactions that are in progress at the same time are related, the default is
sufficient for most uses.
If you specify the Independent parameter, this cmdlet creates a new transaction that can be completed or undone without affecting the original transaction. However, because only one transaction can be active at a time, you must complete or roll back the new transaction before resuming work on the original transaction.
Type: | SwitchParameter |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-RollbackPreference
Specifies the conditions under which a transaction is automatically rolled back. The acceptable values for this parameter are:
Error
The transaction is rolled back automatically if a terminating or non-terminating error occurs.TerminatingError
The transaction is rolled back automatically if a terminating error occurs.Never
The transaction is never rolled back automatically.
The default value is Error
.
Type: | RollbackSeverity |
Accepted values: | Error, TerminatingError, Never |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-Timeout
Specifies the maximum time, in minutes, that the transaction is active. When the time-out expires, the transaction is automatically rolled back.
By default, there is no time-out for transactions that are started at the command line. When transactions are started by a script, the default time-out is 30 minutes.
Type: | Int32 |
Aliases: | TimeoutMins |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | None |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
-WhatIf
Shows what would happen if the cmdlet runs. The cmdlet is not run.
Type: | SwitchParameter |
Aliases: | wi |
Position: | Named |
Default value: | False |
Required: | False |
Accept pipeline input: | False |
Accept wildcard characters: | False |
Inputs
None
You cannot pipe input to this cmdlet.
Outputs
None
This cmdlet does not generate any output.
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