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Anonymous Coward
Asked: 2020-03-16 06:40:45 +0800 CST 2020-03-16 06:40:45 +0800 CST

How to terminate a bash script on any error?

  • 772

If the command cdin this script fails it can be a disaster:

cd $HOME/el-directorio
rm -rf algo

You could use an if to check but when a script has dozens of commands it's expensive and error prone to have to put in a check every time.

How to make bash script stop on any error?

bash

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer
    set -e

    This causes the script to stop if any command returns a non-zero exit code.
    There are some exceptions:

    • If the command is used with the ||, &&, or !
    • If the command is inside a while, until or if condition

    To return bash to normal behavior:

    set +e

    The set -ecan also be activated with a parameter when invoking bash:

    bash -e el_script.sh
    • 4

  2. With the exit command the shell script is terminated at any time. For example, include the following in your code:

    exit 1

    1 indicates a general error. There are other more specific error indicators:

    • 2: Missing keyword
    • 127: Command not found
    • 128: Invalid argument in exit
    • 130: Script terminated with control + C
    • And some others: 126,128+n, 255*

    For your specific example, I would first check if the directory exists:

    if [ -d "$DIRECTORIO" ]; then cd "$DIRECTORIO"; echo "Borrando ALGO" rm -rf ALGO; else echo "El directorio $DIRECTORIO no existe"; exit 1; fi
    • 0