Re: Question with $? in bash, with chains of commands

["Paul Smith" <pausmith@nortelnetworks.com>]

%% Mike Dresser <mdresser_l@windsormachine.com> writes:

  md> Here's a code fragment i'm trying to work on in bash

  md> The problem is, $? reports the result of the last command, which
  md> is gzip, which will ALWAYS report 0(well, unless the hd is full or
  md> the moon is full),

Yes.  The definition of $? in the Bourne shell, since forever, is that
it is the exit code of the last program invoked in a pipeline.

  md> Anyone have any ideas?

See the PIPESTATUS variable in the bash man page.

Note that this is not a standard thing, so if you use it your script
may not be portable to other Bourne-like shells.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul D. Smith <pausmith@nortelnetworks.com> HASMAT--HA Software Mthds & Tools
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   These are my opinions---Nortel Networks takes no responsibility for them.


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