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bashunixtimeout

I can not get "exit status" with "timeout comand"

I expect to get "status 124", but got "status 0" with the following code

timeout 10 sleep 20 | tee -a LOG_FILE LOG_FILE2
RET=$?
echo $RET

I got "status 0" by use this code.

I expect to get "status 124".

What's happen in this code

Solution

  • $? holds the exit status of the last pipeline. Use PIPESTATUS to get the exit status of foreground pipelines (in this case the timeout command).

    $ timeout 10 sleep 20 | tee -a LOG_FILE LOG_FILE2
$ RET=${PIPESTATUS[0]}
$ echo $RET

124  # timed out

    man bash

    PIPESTATUS: An array variable (see Arrays below) containing a list of exit status values from the processes in the most-recently-executed foreground pipeline (which may contain only a single command).