Receive-Job

Syntax

Receive-Job
       [-Job] <Job[]>
       [[-Location] <String[]>]
       [-Keep]
       [-NoRecurse]
       [-Force]
       [-Wait]
       [-AutoRemoveJob]
       [-WriteEvents]
       [-WriteJobInResults]
       [<CommonParameters>]

Receive-Job
       [-Job] <Job[]>
       [[-ComputerName] <String[]>]
       [-Keep]
       [-NoRecurse]
       [-Force]
       [-Wait]
       [-AutoRemoveJob]
       [-WriteEvents]
       [-WriteJobInResults]
       [<CommonParameters>]

Receive-Job
       [-Job] <Job[]>
       [[-Session] <PSSession[]>]
       [-Keep]
       [-NoRecurse]
       [-Force]
       [-Wait]
       [-AutoRemoveJob]
       [-WriteEvents]
       [-WriteJobInResults]
       [<CommonParameters>]

Receive-Job
       [-Keep]
       [-NoRecurse]
       [-Force]
       [-Wait]
       [-AutoRemoveJob]
       [-WriteEvents]
       [-WriteJobInResults]
       [-Name] <String[]>
       [<CommonParameters>]

Receive-Job
       [-Keep]
       [-NoRecurse]
       [-Force]
       [-Wait]
       [-AutoRemoveJob]
       [-WriteEvents]
       [-WriteJobInResults]
       [-InstanceId] <Guid[]>
       [<CommonParameters>]

Receive-Job
       [-Keep]
       [-NoRecurse]
       [-Force]
       [-Wait]
       [-AutoRemoveJob]
       [-WriteEvents]
       [-WriteJobInResults]
       [-Id] <Int32[]>
       [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Receive-Job cmdlet gets the results of PowerShell background jobs, such as those started by using the Start-Job cmdlet or the AsJob parameter of any cmdlet. You can get the results of all jobs or identify jobs by their name, ID, instance ID, computer name, location, or session, or by submitting a job object.

When you start a PowerShell background job, the job starts, but the results do not appear immediately. Instead, the command returns an object that represents the background job. The job object contains useful information about the job, but it does not contain the results. This method lets you continue to work in the session while the job runs. For more information about background jobs in PowerShell, see about_Jobs.

The Receive-Job cmdlet gets the results that have been generated by the time that the Receive-Job command is submitted. If the results are not yet complete, you can run additional Receive-Job commands to get the remaining results.

By default, job results are deleted from the system when you receive them, but you can use the Keep parameter to save the results so that you can receive them again. To delete the job results, run the Receive-Job command again without the Keep parameter, close the session, or use the Remove-Job cmdlet to delete the job from the session.

Starting in Windows PowerShell 3.0, Receive-Job also gets the results of custom job types, such as workflow jobs and instances of scheduled jobs. To enable Receive-Job to get the results a custom job type, import the module that supports the custom job type into the session before it runs a Receive-Job command, either by using the Import-Module cmdlet or by using or getting a cmdlet in the module. For information about a particular custom job type, see the documentation of the custom job type feature.

Examples

Example 1: Get results for a particular job

$job = Start-Job -ScriptBlock {Get-Process}
Receive-Job -Job $job

These commands use the Job parameter of Receive-Job to get the results of a particular job.

The first command starts a job with Start-Job and stores the job object in the $job variable.

The second command uses the Receive-Job cmdlet to get the results of the job. It uses the Job parameter to specify the job.

Example 2: Use the Keep parameter

$job = Start-Job -ScriptBlock {Get-Service dhcp, fakeservice}
$job | Receive-Job -Keep

Cannot find any service with service name 'fakeservice'.
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (fakeservice:String) [Get-Service], ServiceCommandException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoServiceFoundForGivenName,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetServiceCommand
    + PSComputerName        : localhost

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  dhcp               DHCP Client

$job | Receive-Job -Keep

Cannot find any service with service name 'fakeservice'.
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (fakeservice:String) [Get-Service], ServiceCommandException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoServiceFoundForGivenName,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetServiceCommand
    + PSComputerName        : localhost

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  dhcp               DHCP Client

This example stores a job in the $job variable, and pipes the job to the Receive-Job cmdlet. The -Keep parameter is also used to allow all aggregated stream data to be retrieved again after first view.

Example 3: Get results of several background jobs

When you use the AsJob parameter of Invoke-Command to start a job, the job object is created on the local computer, even though the job runs on the remote computers. As a result, you use local commands to manage the job.

Also, when you use AsJob, PowerShell returns one job object that contains a child job for each job that was started. In this case, the job object contains three child jobs, one for each job on each remote computer.

# Use the Invoke-Command cmdlet with the -AsJob parameter to start a background job that runs a Get-Service command on three remote computers.
# Store the resulting job object in the $j variable
$j = Invoke-Command -ComputerName Server01, Server02, Server03 -ScriptBlock {Get-Service} -AsJob
# Display the value of the **ChildJobs** property of the job object in $j.
# The display shows that the command created three child jobs, one for the job on each remote computer.
# You could also use the -IncludeChildJobs parameter of the Get-Job cmdlet.
$j.ChildJobs

Id   Name     State      HasMoreData   Location       Command
--   ----     -----      -----------   --------       -------
2    Job2     Completed  True          Server01       Get-Service
3    Job3     Completed  True          Server02       Get-Service
4    Job4     Completed  True          Server03       Get-Service

# Use the Receive-Job cmdlet to get the results of just the Job3 child job that ran on the Server02 computer.
# Use the *Keep* parameter to allow you to view the aggregated stream data more than once.
Receive-Job -Name Job3 -Keep

Status  Name        DisplayName                        PSComputerName
------  ----------- -----------                        --------------
Running AeLookupSvc Application Experience             Server02
Stopped ALG         Application Layer Gateway Service  Server02
Running Appinfo     Application Information            Server02
Running AppMgmt     Application Management             Server02

Example 4: Get results of background jobs on multiple remote computers

# Use the New-PSSession cmdlet to create three user-managed PSSessions on three servers, and save the sessions in the $s variable.
$s = New-PSSession -ComputerName Server01, Server02, Server03
# Use Invoke-Command run a Start-Job command in each of the PSSessions in the $s variable.
# The creates a new job with a custom name to each server
# The job outputs the datetime from each server
# Save the job objects in the $j variable.
$j = Invoke-Command -Session $s -ScriptBlock {​Start-Job -Name $('MyJob-' +$env:COMPUTERNAME) -ScriptBlock {(Get-Date).ToString()​}​}
# To confirm that these job objects are from the remote machines, run Get-Job to show no local jobs running.
Get-Job​​



# Display the three job objects in $j.
# Note that the Localhost location is not the local computer, but instead localhost as it relates to the job on each Server.
$j

Id   Name               State      HasMoreData   Location   Command
--   ----               -----      -----------   --------   -------
1    MyJob-Server01     Completed  True          Localhost  (Get-Date).ToString()
2    MyJob-Server02     Completed  True          Localhost  (Get-Date).ToString()
3    MyJob-Server03     Completed  True          Localhost  (Get-Date).ToString()

# Use Invoke-Command to run a Receive-Job command in each of the sessions in the $s variable and save the results in the $results variable.
# The Receive-Job command must be run in each session because the jobs were run locally on each server.
$results = Invoke-Command -Session $s -ScriptBlock {​Receive-Job -Name $('MyJob-' +$env:COMPUTERNAME)}

3/22/2021 7:41:47 PM
3/22/2021 7:41:47 PM
3/22/2021 9:41:47 PM

This example shows how to get the results of background jobs run on three remote computers. Unlike the previous example, using Invoke-Command to run the Start-Job command actually started three independent jobs on each of the three computers. As a result, the command returned three job objects representing three jobs run locally on three different computers.

Example 5: Access child jobs

The -Keep parameter preserves the state of the aggregated streams of a job so that it can be viewed again. Without this parameter all aggregated stream data is erased when the job is received. For more information, see about_Job_Details

Start-Job -Name TestJob -ScriptBlock {dir C:\, Z:\}
# Without the Keep parameter, aggregated child job data is displayed once.
# Then destroyed.
Receive-Job -Name TestJob

Directory: C:\

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-r---        1/24/2019   7:11 AM                Program Files
d-r---        2/13/2019   8:32 AM                Program Files (x86)
d-r---        10/3/2018  11:47 AM                Users
d-----         2/7/2019   1:52 AM                Windows
Cannot find drive. A drive with the name 'Z' does not exist.
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (Z:String) [Get-ChildItem], DriveNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DriveNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetChildItemCommand
    + PSComputerName        : localhost

# It would seem that the child job data is gone.
Receive-Job -Name TestJob



# Using the object model, you can still retrieve child job data and streams.
$job = Get-Job -Name TestJob
$job.ChildJobs[0].Error

Cannot find drive. A drive with the name 'Z' does not exist.
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (Z:String) [Get-ChildItem], DriveNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DriveNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetChildItemCommand
    + PSComputerName        : localhost

Parameters

-AutoRemoveJob

-ComputerName

-Force

-Id

-InstanceId

-Job

-Keep

-Location

-Name

-NoRecurse

-Session

-Wait

-WriteEvents

-WriteJobInResults

Inputs

Job

You can pipe job objects to this cmdlet.

Outputs

PSObject

This cmdlet returns the results of the commands in the job.

Related Links

• Get-Job
• Invoke-Command
• Remove-Job
• Start-Job
• Stop-Job
• Wait-Job