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Error handling in bash (notifox.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/programming@programming.dev
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[–] 7 points 8 months ago (1 child)

Errors in command substitution e.g. $(cat file) are ignored by 'set -e', one example of its confusing nature. It does not force you to all handle errors, just some errors and which ones depends on the code you write.

https://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashPitfalls#set_-euo_pipefail

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    This is a great article. I just want to highlight this insane behavior in particular (slightly dramatized):

    set -e

safeDelete() {
  false

  # Surely we don't reach this, right?
  echo "rm $@ goes brr..."
}

if safeDelete all of my files; then
    : # do more stuff
fi

    Frankly if you actually need robustness (which is not always), you should be using a real programming language with exceptions or result types or both (i.e. not C). UNIX processes are just not really up to the task.

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