Problem:

Storage of the command result in variable portcheck does not work as expected. My script contains this method

#!/bin/bash
...

status() {
    portcheck=$(nc -z -v -w5 localhost 8443)
    echo "*${portcheck}*"
    if [[ $portcheck == *refused* ]]; then
          echo "Application is stopped"
    elif [[ $portcheck == *succeeded* ]]; then
          echo "Application is started"
    else
          echo "state unknown"
    fi
}

When I execute myscript, I get this result:

> $  ./myscript status 
> Connection to localhost 8443 port [tcp/*] succeeded!
> ** 
> state unknown

But what I would like to have is that the result of the command is stored in varaible portcheck and the output should look like

> $  ./myscript status 
> Connection to localhost 8443 port [tcp/*] succeeded!
> *Connection to localhost 8443 port [tcp/*] succeeded!* 
> Application is started

I tried several variants according https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4651437/how-to-set-a-variable-to-the-output-from-a-command-in-bash and others e.g.

portcheck=`nc -z -v -w5 localhost 8443`

instead of

portcheck=$(nc -z -v -w5 localhost 8443)

But it didn't work. What am I doing wrong?

Background:

The command

nc -z -v -w5 localhost 8443

checks if the port is connectable. It returns

Connection to localhost 8443 port [tcp/*] succeeded!

if port is "open" and

nc: connect to localhost port 8443 (tcp) failed: Connection refused

if port is "closed".

This works fine if I just execute the command plain in the bash.