bash function return status

Question

I have a function

function f() {
  command 1
  command 2
  command 3
  command 4
}

I want function f() to somehow tell me there is an error if any of the 4 commands fails.

I also don't want to set -e. I want four commands all run, even if one fails.

How do I do that? Sorry for the newbie question -- I am quite new to bash scripting.

this link also helpful : [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32990525/check-all-commands-exit-code-within-a-bash-script/32990797#32990797](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32990525/check-all-commands-exit-code-within-a-bash-script/32990797#32990797) — Nullpointer, Oct 26 '15 at 10:30
@user1261959 This is basically what I am doing in my answer. I did not found an existing answer, otherwise I would have linked to it. Thanks. — coredump, Oct 26 '15 at 11:52

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 26 '15 at 03:43

If I understand what you're asking correctly, you can do this:

f() {
  err=""
  command 1 || err=${err}1
  command 2 || err=${err}2
  command 3 || err=${err}3
  command 4 || err=${err}4
  # do something with $err to report the error
}

Of course, instead of using a variable you could simply put echo commands after the || if all you need to do is print an error message:

f() {
  command 1 || echo "command 1 failed" >&2
  command 2 || echo "command 2 failed" >&2
  command 3 || echo "command 3 failed" >&2
  command 4 || echo "command 4 failed" >&2
}

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:14

2

Take advantage of "$@" and write a higher-order function:

function warner () { "$@" || echo "Error when executing '$@'" >&2; }

Then:

warner command 1
warner command 2
warner command 3
warner command 4

Test:

$ warner git status
fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
Error when executing 'git status'

$ warner true

As @user1261959 found out, this is the same approach as in this answer.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:14

Community

1
1

answered Oct 26 '15 at 03:35

coredump

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Well the problem is command 1 - command n still need to be run regardless whether something fails in the middle. It's just nice to know that something fails. – CuriousMind Oct 26 '15 at 03:41
@CodeNoob Sorry for the misunderstanding, totally rewrote the answer. – coredump Oct 26 '15 at 03:48

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 26 '15 at 03:35

You can check the exit flag of any of your commands after they run by checking the variable $?.If it returns 0 usually everything went well otherwise it means an error occurred. You can make your function return a flag to the caller by using the keyword return

bash function return status

3 Answers3