LinuxQuestions.org - How to properly exit functions in Shell Script?

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How to properly exit functions in Shell Script?

Is there a proper way to exit a function without returning to previous lines in that function?

For instance, I have a shell script with lots of functions, many of them called from within functions:

Code:

functionOne(){

functionTwo

functionThree

functionFour

functionFive

}

Then functionTwo will do something like:

get data from user
test data from user
if data is incorrect then go to another function called tryAgain

Code:

tryAgain(){

Echo "Do you want to try again?"

read yesno

case $yesno in

"yes") functionOne;;

"no") exit;;

esac

If the user chooses no, instead of terminating the program, it simply returns to the next step in functionOne. So if the tryAgain function is called in functionTwo, and the user chooses no, it simply moves on to functionThree instead of exiting. The same thing occurs if I replace exit with

Code:

kill $$

If the tryAgain function is called in functionFive, where there are nno more steps below it, then the exit command works.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong here? Is there a way to terminate the processing of a function?

I can post the actual script if needed, but it's really long, so I thought I'd paraphrase here.

Thanks a lot in advance for any assistance.

Use "return". I would also recommend indenting your code - makes it a lot more readable.

For example:

Code:

#!/bin/bash



f1 () {

    echo "We are in f1"

    return 0

    echo "This line should never execute"

}



f2 () {

    echo "We are in f2, about to call f1"

    f1

    echo "Back in f2, after calling f1"

    return

    echo "This line will not execute"

}



# now the functions are defined, you can call them.  We'll call f2



echo "About to call f2"

f2

echo "After calling f2, back in main flow"

The output should look like this:

Code:

About to call f2

We are in f2, about to call f1

We are in f1

Back in f2, after calling f1

After calling f2, back in main flow

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthewg42 (Post 3423062)

Use "return". I would also recommend indenting your code - makes it a lot more readable.

For example:

Code:

#!/bin/bash



f1 () {

    echo "We are in f1"

    return 0

    echo "This line should never execute"

}



f2 () {

    echo "We are in f2, about to call f1"

    f1

    echo "Back in f2, after calling f1"

    return

    echo "This line will not execute"

}



# now the functions are defined, you can call them.  We'll call f2



echo "About to call f2"

f2

echo "After calling f2, back in main flow"

The output should look like this:

Code:

About to call f2

We are in f2, about to call f1

We are in f1

Back in f2, after calling f1

After calling f2, back in main flow

Thanks I'll try that out. Where does the 0 in return 0 end up? Is that the exit status of the function? Is there a way to assign that to a variable?

Thanks a lot for the help.

Oh, and yeah I do indent my code - I just didn't in that example because the tab button doesn't work here in the posting window.

The return value is assigned to $? after the function returns. It should be a positive integer, generally less than 127. 0 indicates success. See the EXIT STATUS section of the bash manual page for more information.

If you don't use a return in a function, the exit status of the last executed command is used instead.

For example:

Code:

f1 () {

    # do something here, then test to see if it worked

    if [ SOMETESTOFSUCCESSHERE ]; then

        return 0

    else

        return 1

    fi

}



if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then

    echo "WARNING, f1 didn't work"

fi

A quicker (but probably less readable to shell beginners) way of doing the if is like this:

Code:

f1 || echo "WARNING, f1 didn't work"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jude Terror (Post 3423125)

Thanks I'll try that out. Where does the 0 in return 0 end up? Is that the exit status of the function? Is there a way to assign that to a variable?

Yup ...

Code:

bash-3.1$ new() if test $1 == 1; then return 0; else return 1; fi

bash-3.1$ if new 1; then echo 2; fi

2

bash-3.1$ if new 2; then echo 2; fi

bash-3.1$

Same goes for the entire script, but using 'exit 0' or 'exit 1', etc...

Excellent. Thank you very much.