PowerShell

PowerShell Core – The type initializer for Gdip threw an exception.

While working on PSWriteExcel on Ubuntu / Mac OS I've noticed that my -AutoFit method for ConvertTo-Excel was crashing. I couldn't reproduce same behavior on PowerShell Core on Windows so it must be something with how Ubuntu / Mac OS deals with it. The error I was getting:

Failed AutoFit with error message: Exception calling “AutoFitColumns” with “0” argument(s): “The type initializer for ‘Gdip' threw an exception.”

It seems the issue is known and reported on GitHub.  Until then… you need to work with workaround as below..

How can I fix it?

To fix this you need to run following commands and install or update libgdiplus.

apt install -y libc6-dev
apt install -y libgdiplus

On Mac OS it's a almost the same with the difference of using brew

brew install mono-libgdiplus

After this little update.. no more errors

If you're working with Azure DevOps change required to Mac OS looks like this (surprisingly Ubuntu doesn't have this error)

jobs:
  - job: Build_PS_Win2016
    pool:
      vmImage: vs2017-win2016
    steps:
    - powershell: |
        Install-Module -Name Pester -Repository PSGallery -Force -SkipPublisherCheck
        .\PSWriteExcel.Tests.ps1 -Verbose
      displayName: 'Run Pester Tests'

  - job: Build_PSCore_Ubuntu1604

    pool:
      vmImage: ubuntu-16.04

    steps:
    - script: |
        curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | sudo apt-key add -
        curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/16.04/prod.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft.list
        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get install -y powershell
      displayName: 'Install PowerShell Core'

    - script: |
        pwsh -c '.\PSWriteExcel.Tests.ps1'
      displayName: 'Run Pester Tests'

  - job: Build_PSCore_MacOS1013
    pool:
      vmImage: xcode9-macos10.13
    steps:
    - script: |
        brew update
        brew tap caskroom/cask
        brew install mono-libgdiplus
        brew cask install powershell
      displayName: 'Install PowerShell Core'

    - script: |
        pwsh -c '.\PSWriteExcel.Tests.ps1'
      displayName: 'Run Pester Tests'

If you're working with Travis updated .travis.yml looks like this which covers both Ubuntu and Mac OS

language: generic

matrix:
  include:
    - os: osx
      osx_image: xcode9.1
      before_install:
        - brew update
        - brew tap caskroom/cask
        - brew install mono-libgdiplus
        - brew cask install powershell
    - os: linux
      dist: trusty
      sudo: required
      addons:
        apt:
          sources:
            - sourceline: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/ubuntu/14.04/prod trusty main
              key_url: https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
          packages:
            - libc6-dev
            - libgdiplus
            - powershell

script:
  - pwsh -c 'Install-Module Pester -Force -Scope CurrentUser; .\PSWriteExcel.Tests.ps1'

This post was last modified on %s = human-readable time difference 21:08

Przemyslaw Klys

System Architect with over 14 years of experience in the IT field. Skilled, among others, in Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange and Office 365. Profoundly interested in PowerShell. Software geek.

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Przemyslaw Klys
Tags: powershellpowershell coreubuntu
6 years ago

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