How to exit if a command failed? [duplicate]

by

Try:

my_command || { echo 'my_command failed' ; exit 1; }

Four changes:

  • Change && to ||
  • Use { } in place of ( )
  • Introduce ; after exit and
  • spaces after { and before }

Since you want to print the message and exit only when the command fails ( exits with non-zero value) you need a || not an &&.

cmd1 && cmd2

will run cmd2 when cmd1 succeeds(exit value 0). Where as

cmd1 || cmd2

will run cmd2 when cmd1 fails(exit value non-zero).

Using ( ) makes the command inside them run in a sub-shell and calling a exit from there causes you to exit the sub-shell and not your original shell, hence execution continues in your original shell.

To overcome this use { }

The last two changes are required by bash.

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