Automatically exit when bash command produce return code non zero [duplicate]

Question

In bash how do we make the script to automatically exit if a command line return code is not zero. For example:

#!/bin/bash

cd /something_something
mv file_a /somedir/file_a # this produce an error
echo $?  # This produce a non-zero output
echo "We should not continue to this line"

I know we can debug bash script with #!/bin/bash -x but sometime the script is too long, it run so fast, and we missed important error.

And I don't want to keep writing [[ $? -ne 0 ]] && run next_command

@anubhava thanks that's what I need. Strangely my bash --help doesn't show this option, regardless, it works. Could you please move it as an answer? — RonPringadi
– RonPringadi, Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 18:39
Note BashFAQ #105, describing why what you're asking for is a bad idea. It's impossible to tell the difference between "X returned a value of false" and "X failed", and lots of things return nonzero exit status for reasons that aren't actually failures. Worse, set -e has lots of heuristics to try to guess at those cases, they're different between different shells (and releases of the same shell), and those differences lead to surprises/breakage. — Charles Duffy
– Charles Duffy, Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 18:39

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-26 18:39:58Z

2

There are lots of problems with using set -e. Just join the commands with &&, and test the result with an if statement.

if cd /something_something && mv file_a /somedir/file_a; then
    echo $?
    exit
fi
echo "Both cd and mv worked"

answered Nov 26, 2018 at 18:39

chepner

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