Bash get exit status of command when 'set -e' is active?
BashBash Problem Overview
I generally have -e set in my Bash scripts, but occasionally I would like to run a command and get the return value.
Without doing the set +e; some-command; res=$?; set -e dance, how can I do that?
Bash Solutions
Solution 1 - Bash
From the bash manual:
> The shell does not exit if the command that fails is [...] part of any command executed in a && or || list [...].
So, just do:
#!/bin/bash
set -eu
foo() {
# exit code will be 0, 1, or 2
return $(( RANDOM % 3 ))
}
ret=0
foo || ret=$?
echo "foo() exited with: $ret"
Example runs:
$ ./foo.sh
foo() exited with: 1
$ ./foo.sh
foo() exited with: 0
$ ./foo.sh
foo() exited with: 2
This is the canonical way of doing it.
Solution 2 - Bash
as an alternative
ans=0
some-command || ans=$?
Solution 3 - Bash
Maybe try running the commands in question in a subshell, like this?
res=$(some-command > /dev/null; echo $?)
Solution 4 - Bash
Given behavior of shell described at this question it's possible to use following construct:
#!/bin/sh
set -e
{ custom_command; rc=$?; } || :
echo $rc
Solution 5 - Bash
Use a wrapper function to execute your commands:
function __e {
set +e
"$@"
__r=$?
set -e
}
__e yourcommand arg1 arg2
And use $__r instead of $?:
if [[ __r -eq 0 ]]; then
echo "success"
else
echo "failed"
fi
Another method to call commands in a pipe, only that you have to quote the pipe. This does a safe eval.
function __p {
set +e
local __A=() __I
for (( __I = 1; __I <= $#; ++__I )); do
if [[ "${!__I}" == '|' ]]; then
__A+=('|')
else
__A+=("\"\$$__I\"")
fi
done
eval "${__A[@]}"
__r=$?
set -e
}
Example:
__p echo abc '|' grep abc
And I actually prefer this syntax:
__p echo abc :: grep abc
Which I could do with
...
if [[ ${!__I} == '::' ]]; then
...