Should shell command errors abandon subsequent commands?

idallen at watmath.UUCP idallen at watmath.UUCP
Fri Jul 20 15:15:34 AEST 1984


Consider the following set of shell (any shell) commands and give me
your opinion on what the best, ideal, most friendly behaviour would be:

   1.  nosuchcommand ; echo "Is this executed?"
   2.  ( nosuchcommand ; cmd ) ; echo "Is this executed?"
   3.  echo `nosuchcommand` "Is this executed?"
   4.  cmd nosuchglob* ; echo "Is this executed?"

Tell me what you think should ideally happen A) in interactive use at a
terminald and B) inside a shell file.  Does it make any difference
whether or not the commands are shell built-ins?  In a shell file,
would it make any difference if the commands were on separate lines?

[ For you CSH fans, try "echo nosuchglob* ; date" and
"/bin/echo nosuchglob* ; date" and see if you like the difference.]
-- 
        -IAN!  (Ian! D. Allen)      University of Waterloo



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