How do I get the correct return code from a unix command line application after I've piped it through another command that succeeded?
In detail, here's the situation :
$ tar -cEvhf - -I ${sh_tar_inputlist} | gzip -5 -c > ${sh_tar_file} -- when only the tar command fails $?=0
$ echo $?
0
And, what I'd like to see is:
$ tar -cEvhf - -I ${sh_tar_inputlist} 2>${sh_tar_error_file} | gzip -5 -c > ${sh_tar_file}
$ echo $?
1
Does anyone know how to accomplish this?
Use ${PIPESTATUS[0]} to get the exit status of the first command in the pipe.
For details, see http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/internalvariables.html#PIPESTATUSREF
See also http://cfajohnson.com/shell/cus-faq-2.html for other approaches if your shell does not support $PIPESTATUS.
Look at $PIPESTATUS which is an array variable holding exit statuses. So ${PIPESTATUS[0]} holds the exit status of the first command in the pipe, ${PIPESTATUS[1]} the exit status of the second command, and so on.
For example:
$ tar -cEvhf - -I ${sh_tar_inputlist} | gzip -5 -c > ${sh_tar_file}
$ echo ${PIPESTATUS[0]}
To print out all statuses use:
$ echo ${PIPESTATUS[@]}
${PIPESTATUS[*]} and ${PIPESTATUS[@]}? I always use the former...
${pipestatus[1]} is what holds the code for the first command.Here is a general solution using only POSIX shell and no temporary files:
Starting from the pipeline: foo | bar | baz
exec 4>&1
error_statuses=`((foo || echo "0:$?" >&3) |
(bar || echo "1:$?" >&3) |
(baz || echo "2:$?" >&3)) 3>&1 >&4`
exec 4>&-
$error_statuses contains the status codes of any failed processes, in random order, with indexes to tell which command emitted each status.
# if "bar" failed, output its status:
echo $error_statuses | grep '1:' | cut -d: -f2
# test if all commands succeeded:
test -z "$error_statuses"
# test if the last command succeeded:
echo $error_statuses | grep '2:' >/dev/null
As others have pointed out, some modern shells provide PIPESTATUS to get this info. In classic sh, it's a bit more difficult, and you need to use a fifo:
#!/bin/sh
trap 'rm -rf $TMPDIR' 0
TMPDIR=$( mktemp -d )
mkfifo ${FIFO=$TMPDIR/fifo}
cmd1 > $FIFO &
cmd2 < $FIFO
wait $!
echo The return value of cmd1 is $?
(Well, you don't need to use a fifo. You can have the commands early in the pipe echo a status variable and eval that in the main shell, redirecting file descriptors all over the place and basically bending over backwards to check things, but using a fifo is much, much easier.)
$?holds the error code. You could save it in a variable.