Print Last Exit Code

- 2 minutes read - 236 words

The exit code of a command in a Unix-based system is an important and easy-to-miss piece of data. It isn’t printed to standard out; you have to go looking for it. I find it useful to inspect this information when debugging or considering chaining unfamiliar commands.

To see the exit code of your last command, echo its variable ($) value:

$ " $ 0 # $ r $ 1 s m e o e # ' r : e # c m c 1 m c h e h S ' n h F o t o u n o o a h c e o n i " i $ c x n e $ l s n ? e a e x ? u o g s m x i r m " s p i s e e ! l s t . t e t e h e n i n t n t - g - f " f i i l l e e : N o s u c h f i l e o r d i r e c t o r y

The two exit codes you must remember are 0, command was successful, and 1, a catch-all for errors. Zero is success, not-zero failure.

I have a terminal function that prints this variable:

# Print the last exit status
function print_status() {
  echo $?
}