Forward exit code in bash if

Question

I want to run a command on bash that shows the output of git status, but only if something interesting is there. In other words: If everything is fine, I don't want the command to print anything. Basically I can achieve this by running:

if [[ $(git status -s) ]]; then git status; fi

The trick here is that the -s flag only outputs anything if there is something interesting, so it does exactly what I want to :-)

The only drawback is that if I run this in a directory that is not a git directory, I don't get an exit code not equal to 0. If I run git status or git status -s directly, both fail with exit code 128. But as soon as I do this within the if, the exit code is 0.

How can I enhance my script so that the exit code will be forwarded?

What exit code does git status -s give if nothing interesting has happened? — 123
– 123, Commented Aug 9, 2016 at 9:37

heemayl · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-09 10:51:55Z

1

Do the exit status check within [[ too:

if [[ -n $(git status -s 2>/dev/null) ]]; then git status; fi

edited Aug 9, 2016 at 10:51

answered Aug 9, 2016 at 9:01

heemayl

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2 Comments

123 Over a year ago

or just if git status -s 2>/dev/null;then git status

123 Over a year ago

Does git status -s return true even if nothing of interest has happened then?

oliv · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-09 09:05:21Z

1

You can use rev-parse in case the directory in not in git:

git rev-parse 2>/dev/null && { git status -s || git status; }

answered Aug 9, 2016 at 9:05

oliv

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Comments

fedorqui · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-09 09:05:36Z

1

Just redirect to /dev/null and check if the output is empty or not:

[ -n "$(git status -s 2>/dev/null)" ] && git status

This will perform git status when the git status -s command runs successfully and its output is not empty, as per man test:

   -n STRING
          the length of STRING is nonzero

edited Aug 9, 2016 at 9:05

answered Aug 9, 2016 at 9:03

fedorqui

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1 Comment

Golo Roden Over a year ago

Unfortunately, this does not work: It correctly forwards the exit code, but does not suppress output if there is nothing interesting to see.

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