Last exit status from within script without source

Question

Supposing someone invokes a non-existent command, the only way I know to retrieve its error status from a script I execute right after is by using source

I.e., let's say this script's name is dummy where its contents are simply

#!/bin/bash

echo $?

I know I will only get the exit status I'm looking for (127) if I invoke source dummy, but is there another way to facilitate getting the exit status (preferably without using alias) from the last command from within the script, without using source so I could simply call dummy to get my desired behaviour?

I am simply trying to make a script to check for a typo in the previous command. This requires detecting the previous exit status to make sure there was a potential typo in the first place, so I need to be able to get the exit status of the last command from within the script. I am also hoping to minimize the amount of setup a user would have to do, so that a user could simple invoke dummy, for example, and the rest would be taken care of. This is my reason for trying to avoid source or ., or alias.

My initial test for exit status of the last command was to use

#!/bin/bash
ESTATUS=$? # Saved exit status for later
echo $ESTATUS

but this required having to run that script with source. Is there a good way to replicate this without having to use source, or .?

Answer 1

You could perhaps use the script at https://github.com/rcaloras/bash-preexec (as discussed at https://superuser.com/questions/175799/does-bash-have-a-hook-that-is-run-before-executing-a-command) and use the precmd() function to do your $? checking

Answer 2

I'm not quite sure where that will lead to, but you can do:

alias dummy='sh dummy $?'
the_program_with_errors
dummy

and your dummy script would contain:

echo $1

An approach without alias is to use a shell function:

function dummy { sh dummy $? ;}

With that definition you can get the following behaviour (simulated with true, false, and a subshell process):

$ true 
$ dummy
0
$ false
$ dummy
1
$ (exit 42)
$ dummy    
42

Answer 3

It sounds to me as if the scripts that you are calling should provide the responses that you desire. Here's a way to test for a command and use a specific exit code in those scripts.

#!/bin/bash

# Test for the existence of a command in the path.
command=typo_command
if [[ ! $(command -v $command) ]]; then
    echo "$command does not exist"
    exit 127 # or the code you choose
fi

Answer 4

Write a function

Your shell is one process, and has a value for $?. Your script is a separate, child process, and has its own value for $?.

If you want to be able to check the $? belonging to your shell, you need your command to run in the shell process. source is one way to do that, but a simpler way is to write a function.

function dummy(){
  echo $?
}

If declared in the user's .bashrc or equivilant, this should be available and work as you expect.

(If you want, it could even call out to a script to do whatever else you want, and pass to the script the value of $?.)