How to return error code when using tee in bash

Question

I want to use tee to write the output of any command (first command) to a file, but I want to get the return code from the first command instead of the tee command.

Example 1: The following code will return 1 and it is expected:

cp -unknown-args "hello"
echo "return code is $?"

---output---
cp: invalid option -- 'k'
Try 'cp --help' for more information.
return code is 1

Example 2: The following code will return 0 and it is unexpected:

cp -unknown-args "hello" | tee test.txt
echo "return code is $?"

---output---
cp: invalid option -- 'k'
Try 'cp --help' for more information.
return code is 0

I want to make "Example 2" to return 1 if the first command has any error. Is it possible and how to do if yes?

Answer 1

try set -o pipefail, this will propagate nonzero exits to later pipe members