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bashexit-codeshort-circuiting

How to retrieve the return code of a command in a short-circuit expression


After an expression:

command1 | command2

I can retrieve the first commands exit status through ${PIPESTATUS[0]}

Is there an equivalent for expressions in the form:

command3 && command4 || command5

I would like to retrieve the exitcode of command3:

command3 && command4 || command5
retval=${SHORTCIRCUIT[0]}     # how to get this value?

Preferably without creating temporary files.


Solution

  • Elaborating devnull's approach leads to

    { c3=0; command3 || c3=$? && false; } && command4 || command5
    echo $c3
    

    . Because every command can be replaced by

    { c=0; command || c=$? && false; }
    

    (provided that c is initially unset if executed conditionally), this is easily extensible.