CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
Petr
Petr

Reputation: 14485

How to use multiple commands after "||" in Bash

Imagine the code:

ls || echo "Unable to execute ls (returned non zero)"

What if I needed to execute more commands like:

ls || echo "this is echo 1" <some operator> echo "this is echo 2" <some operator> exit 1

in C (assumming I have a function ls) I could do (even if it looks insane):

ls() || (command1() && command2());

but I doubt I can use parentheses like this in bash.

I know I can create a Bash function that would contain these commands, but what if I needed to combine this with exit 1 (exit in a function would exit that function, not whole script)?

Upvotes: 36

Views: 13367

Answers (2)

choroba
choroba

Reputation: 241868

In fact, you can use parentheses. They just tell bash "run the commands in a subshell". You can also use curlies:

ls || { echo 1 ; echo 2 ; }

Note that ; or a newline before the closing curlie is not optional.

Upvotes: 19

devnull
devnull

Reputation: 123508

You can group multiple commands within { }. Saying:

some_command || { command1; command2; }

would execute command1 and command2 if some_command exited with a non-zero return code.

{}

{ list; }

Placing a list of commands between curly braces causes the list to be executed in the current shell context. No subshell is created. The semicolon (or newline) following list is required.

Upvotes: 62

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