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I have a shell script that calls on a Perl script to do some file processing. The Perl scripts exits with either a zero or one value. I have the Unix set -e command at the beginning of my script to abort the script if the Perl script exits with a value of one. I was just wondering if there is any command in Unix that I can use that would execute one command before the script is aborted if the Perl script exits with a one value? Essentially, I want the script to send me an email stating whether the Perl script ran successfully. My code looks like this right now:

#!/bin/bash

set -e

function email_success {
#Some code for the email 
}

function email_fail {
#Some code for the email
}

usr/bin/perl perlscript.pl

if [$? -eq 0]; then 
 email_success
else 
 email_fail
fi 

#More commands to be executed if its successful
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2 Answers 2

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Just don't use set -e and add an exit to your if fail branch. If you want that behavior for the rest of the script add the set -e after the email call.

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Awesome, that worked great. Thank you! –  Cpoole Jul 16 at 15:04
up vote 1 down vote

Use set -e

You can write:

#!/bin/bash
set -e

# function email_success {...}

# function email_fail { ... }

if /usr/bin/perl perlscript.pl; then
  email_success
else
  email_fail
  exit 1
fi

#More commands to be executed if its successful

Explanation:

Bash Reference Manual says:

-e Exit immediately if a pipeline, which may consist of a single simple command, returns a non-zero status. The shell does not exit if the command that fails is part of the test in an if statement.

Conditional Constructs (if):

The syntax of the if command is 

if test-commands; then
  consequent-commands;
[elif more-test-commands; then
  more-consequents;]
[else alternate-consequents;]
  fi

The test-commands list is executed, and if its return status is zero, the consequent-commands list is executed. If ‘else alternate-consequents’ is present, and the final command in the final if or elif clause has a non-zero exit status, then alternate-consequents is executed.

See also: Use the Unofficial Bash Strict Mode (Unless You Looove Debugging)

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