Check all commands exit code within a bash script

Question

Consider the case where I have a very long bash script with several commands. Is there a simple way to check the exit status for ALL of them easily. So if there's some failure I can show which command has failed and its return code.

I mean, I don't want to use the test for each one of them checks like the following:

my_command
if [ $status -ne 0 ]; then
    #error case
    echo "error while executing " my_command " ret code:" $?
    exit 1
fi

Is there a point of continuing once a command failed? Often than not tasks depend on each other. — Karoly Horvath
– Karoly Horvath, Commented Oct 7, 2015 at 11:05
No, I would like to stop the execution, cleanup and show a user friendly exit statement — rkachach
– rkachach, Commented Oct 7, 2015 at 12:20

score 5 · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-07 13:08:00Z

5

One can test the value of $? or simply put set -e at the top of the script which will cause it to exit upon any command which errors.

#!/bin/sh

set -xe

my_command1

# never makes it here if my_command1 fails
my_command2

edited Oct 7, 2015 at 13:08

answered Oct 7, 2015 at 11:53

user4832408

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2 Comments

user4832408 Over a year ago

The way I program is to use set -xe for everything, and exit upon first error reporting all commands to the user. I updated the post to reflect this.

user4832408 Over a year ago

If you want to hard wire a command to not trigger the program to exit upon error while under set -xe use: bad_command || true

Hellmar Becker · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-07 11:19:42Z

4

You can do trap "cmd" ERR, which invokes cmd when a command fails. However this solution has a couple of drawbacks. For example, it does not catch a failure inside a pipe.

In a nutshell, you are better off doing your error management properly, on a case by case basis.

answered Oct 7, 2015 at 11:19

Hellmar Becker

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1 Comment

rkachach Over a year ago

Is there some simple method in this case to show the failing command?

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-07 12:35:40Z

2

You can write a function that launches:

function test {
    "$@"
    local status=$?
    if [ $status -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "error with $1" >&2
    fi
    return $status
}

test command1
test command2

edited Oct 7, 2015 at 12:35

chepner

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answered Oct 7, 2015 at 11:17

Nullpointer

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1 Comment

Kostis Over a year ago

this seems copied from stackoverflow.com/a/5195741/862225, no? If true, it would be nice to add a reference

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