Print and Handle Error with Bash Exit Code [Easy Guide]

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Error handling is one of the most important aspects of bash scripting. It is essential for maintaining the reliability and stability of applications. Sometimes handling errors can be difficult, but using print exit codes provides a simple way to deal with it. To handle errors in your bash script, you can check the exit code with $? variable. This will determine whether your last command’s execution is successful or not. This article will discuss how to print and handle errors with exit code in bash with a brief illustration. So let’s start!

What are Bash Exit Codes?

Bash exit code is a numeric value returned by a command or script after the execution of the program. These codes are used to indicate whether the program is executed successfully or not. In general, a bash exit code value of 0 indicates that the program executed successfully. On the other hand, a bash exit value of non–zero indicates different failure scenarios. Different values indicate different types of errors or conditions.

Here’s a table of some commonly encountered Bash exit codes along with their typical meanings:

How to Check Exit Code of a Command in Bash?

You can retrieve the exit code of the most recent Bash command by using the special variable “$?“.

To find out the exit code of a command use the $? variable and print the value as given in the script below:

#!/bin/bash

# Execute a command
ls

# Capture the exit code
exit_code=$?

# Output the exit code
echo "Exit code: $exit_code"

#Execute another command
ls /home/LinuxSimply

#Store the exit code for 2nd command
exit_code=$?

#print the output
echo "Exit code of 2nd Command: $exit_code"

As you can see from the image above, the ls command successfully executed, thus the exit code of it is 0. However, the $? variable only stores the output of the last executed command. Upon executing another command ls /home/LinuxSimply, the output of the previous command is lost. As the prompt says, the ls command can not access /home/LinuxSimply directory, which means it is a failed command, thus the exit code is a non–zero value.

How to Print and Handle Error with Exit Code in Bash?

To print and handle errors with exit codes in a Bash script, you can follow these steps:

1. Execute Command: Begin by executing the command whose exit code you want to capture and handle.
2. Capture Exit Code: Use the special variable “$?” immediately after executing the command to capture its exit code.
3. Print Exit Code: Output the exit code to provide visibility into the success or failure of the command.
4. Handle Error: Implement conditional logic to check the exit code and handle errors appropriately. This may include displaying error messages, performing cleanup tasks, or exiting the script with a specific exit code to indicate failure.

Here’s a practical example illustrating how to print and handle errors with exit codes in a Bash script:

#!/bin/bash

# Execute a command that may fail
ls

# Capture the exit code
exit_code=$?

# Print the exit code for visibility
echo "Exit code: $exit_code"

# Check the exit code and handle errors
if [ $exit_code -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Error: Command failed with exit code $exit_code"
    # Perform error handling tasks here (e.g., logging, cleanup)
    exit 1  # Exit the script with a non-zero exit code to indicate failure
else
    echo "Success: Command executed without errors"
    # Continue script execution or perform further actions
fi

Now, with the help of ls command, the provided bash script can list the file and folder of the current directory which is evident from the image given above. Thus the exit code is zero and it prints “Success: Command executed without errors”.

Checking Exit Codes from Piped Commands

In a pipeline, the exit status of the entire pipeline is determined by the exit status of its last command. However, suppose you want to access the exit status of each command within the pipeline. In that case, you need to use additional techniques such as the “PIPESTATUS” array or the “set -o pipefail” option.

1. Using PIPESTATUS Array to Handle Piped Command

To handle piped command, use the “PIPESTATUS” array, which holds the exit status of each command in the last pipeline executed. Here’s an example:

#!/bin/bash

# Execute commands with a pipe
ls /nonexist_directory | wc -l

# Capture the exit code of the first command in the pipeline
exit_code_ls=${PIPESTATUS[0]}

# Print the exit codes for visibility
echo "Exit code of ls: $exit_code_ls"
echo "Exit code of the whole command pipeline: $?"

As the image suggests, the exit status of the first command ls /nonexist_directory failed because there is no file named nonexist_directory. Thus, the exit code returns 2 using the PIPESTATUS array. However, the exit code of the whole command ls /nonexist_directory | wc -l is 0, which means successful execution because the exit code returns based on the last command it executes. Since the wc -l is a valid and successful command in this case, the whole command status is 0.

2. Using “set -o pipefail” to Handle Piped Command

Another approach is to use the “set -o pipefail” option, which causes a pipeline to produce a non–zero exit status if any command in the pipeline fails. Here’s how to use it:

#!/bin/bash

# Enable pipefail option
set -o pipefail

# Execute commands with a pipe
ls /nonexist_directory | wc -l

# Capture the exit code of the last command in the pipeline
exit_code=$?

# Print the exit code for visibility
echo "Exit code of the pipeline: $exit_code"

As the image shows, The command ls /nonexist_directory failed. It is because the directory nonexist_directory does not exist. However, the command wc -l was executed successfully and returned a word count of zero. Finally, despite the successful execution of the last command, the exit code for the entire command line is 2 because the first command failed. Therefore, the entire command line is considered to have failed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are numerous situations to print and handle errors with an exit code in bash, depending on the situation, such as how you want to channel the error or what the possible alternatives are to rectify the issue. This article discusses some ways to do so, but if you feel that you are stuck on something, please feel free to share it with us. We will appreciate your concerns and provide solutions for them. Till then, happy Bash coding!

People Also Ask

How to print the exit code of a command in Bash?

To print the exit code of a command in Bash, you can use the special variable $? immediately after executing the command. This variable holds the exit code of the most recently executed command. Here’s how you can do it:

#!/bin/bash

# Execute a command
your_command

# Capture the exit code
exit_code=$?

# Print the exit code
echo "Exit code: $exit_code"

Here replace your_command with the command line for which you want to check the exit status.

What is $? 0 in Bash?

$? is a variable in bash that represents the output of the most recent command. When the command ends, $? is set to its output. Usually, an output value of 0 means that the command completed successfully with no errors. The command is considered to be failed if it returns a non-zero value.

What is exit code 1 in Bash?

In bash, exit code 1 usually means that the most recent command has thrown an exception or failed to complete the job successfully. In bash, the exit code ranges from 0 to 255. A value of 0 indicates success and a value of non–zero indicates different failure conditions.

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