Why Doesn’t My Bash Script Exit with set -e?

What you're looking for might be `set -eo pipefail`, but keep in mind that's useful for pipelines, and you aren't using them here.

That's right! `set -e` will only exit on untested errors, as noted in the manual. It specifically states that it will not exit for commands in `&&` or `||` lists.

Thanks for sharing! I wasn't aware of how this works. It clears up a lot.

In general, I lean towards writing my own error handling instead of relying on `set -e`, especially in more complex scripts. While it might seem okay in simple cases, as your script grows, you really want to manage errors and clean up properly instead of just exiting at the first failure.

You should include a `||` statement to handle failures yourself. The `set -e` only applies to the last command in a command list. As outlined in the Bash manual, it won't exit if the command that fails is part of an `&&` or `||` list, except for the final command in the chain.

According to POSIX, if any command in a multi-command pipeline fails, it won't cause the shell to exit. Only if the entire pipeline fails will it result in an exit.

You're spot on! When using constructs like `if`, `&&`, or `||`, these are called tested commands, and `set -e` doesn’t apply to them. It only triggers on untested failures.