Note: This site is currently "Under construction". I'm migrating to a new version of my site building software. Lots of things are in a state of disrepair as a result (for example, footnote links aren't working). It's all part of the process of building in public. Most things should still be readable though.

Get The Exit Status Code For The Last Command

The exit code for the last thing run can be seen with the variable:

Code

$?

Zero is the standard value that gets returned if the preceedeing process was successful. Any non-zero numbers mean it failed in some way.

Example usage

echo $?

Note

Being able to use `$?`bash` is one reason why it's a good idea to return proper exit status codes from any command line apps you write.