Is there a TRY CATCH command in Bash
Is there a TRY CATCH command in Bash?
No.
Bash doesn't have as many luxuries as one can find in many programming languages.
There is no try/catch in bash; however, one can achieve similar behavior using && or ||.
Using ||:
if command1 fails then command2 runs as follows
command1 || command2
Similarly, using &&, command2 will run if command1 is successful
The closest approximation of try/catch is as follows
{ # try
command1 &&
#save your output
} || { # catch
# save log for exception
}
Also bash contains some error handling mechanisms, as well
set -e
it stops your script if any simple command fails.
And also why not if...else. It is your best friend.
Based on some answers I found here, I made myself a small helper file to source for my projects:
trycatch.sh
#!/bin/bash
function try()
{
[[ $- = *e* ]]; SAVED_OPT_E=$?
set +e
}
function throw()
{
exit $1
}
function catch()
{
export ex_code=$?
(( $SAVED_OPT_E )) && set +e
return $ex_code
}
function throwErrors()
{
set -e
}
function ignoreErrors()
{
set +e
}
here is an example how it looks like in use:
#!/bin/bash
export AnException=100
export AnotherException=101
# start with a try
try
( # open a subshell !!!
echo "do something"
[ someErrorCondition ] && throw $AnException
echo "do something more"
executeCommandThatMightFail || throw $AnotherException
throwErrors # automaticatly end the try block, if command-result is non-null
echo "now on to something completely different"
executeCommandThatMightFail
echo "it's a wonder we came so far"
executeCommandThatFailsForSure || true # ignore a single failing command
ignoreErrors # ignore failures of commands until further notice
executeCommand1ThatFailsForSure
local result = $(executeCommand2ThatFailsForSure)
[ result != "expected error" ] && throw $AnException # ok, if it's not an expected error, we want to bail out!
executeCommand3ThatFailsForSure
# make sure to clear $ex_code, otherwise catch * will run
# echo "finished" does the trick for this example
echo "finished"
)
# directly after closing the subshell you need to connect a group to the catch using ||
catch || {
# now you can handle
case $ex_code in
$AnException)
echo "AnException was thrown"
;;
$AnotherException)
echo "AnotherException was thrown"
;;
*)
echo "An unexpected exception was thrown"
throw $ex_code # you can rethrow the "exception" causing the script to exit if not caught
;;
esac
}
I've developed an almost flawless try & catch implementation in bash, that allows you to write code like:
try
echo 'Hello'
false
echo 'This will not be displayed'
catch
echo "Error in $__EXCEPTION_SOURCE__ at line: $__EXCEPTION_LINE__!"
You can even nest the try-catch blocks inside themselves!
try {
echo 'Hello'
try {
echo 'Nested Hello'
false
echo 'This will not execute'
} catch {
echo "Nested Caught (@ $__EXCEPTION_LINE__)"
}
false
echo 'This will not execute too'
} catch {
echo "Error in $__EXCEPTION_SOURCE__ at line: $__EXCEPTION_LINE__!"
}
The code is a part of my bash boilerplate/framework. It further extends the idea of try & catch with things like error handling with backtrace and exceptions (plus some other nice features).
Here's the code that's responsible just for try & catch:
set -o pipefail
shopt -s expand_aliases
declare -ig __oo__insideTryCatch=0
# if try-catch is nested, then set +e before so the parent handler doesn't catch us
alias try="[[ \$__oo__insideTryCatch -gt 0 ]] && set +e;
__oo__insideTryCatch+=1; ( set -e;
trap \"Exception.Capture \${LINENO}; \" ERR;"
alias catch=" ); Exception.Extract \$? || "
Exception.Capture() {
local script="${BASH_SOURCE[1]#./}"
if [[ ! -f /tmp/stored_exception_source ]]; then
echo "$script" > /tmp/stored_exception_source
fi
if [[ ! -f /tmp/stored_exception_line ]]; then
echo "$1" > /tmp/stored_exception_line
fi
return 0
}
Exception.Extract() {
if [[ $__oo__insideTryCatch -gt 1 ]]
then
set -e
fi
__oo__insideTryCatch+=-1
__EXCEPTION_CATCH__=( $(Exception.GetLastException) )
local retVal=$1
if [[ $retVal -gt 0 ]]
then
# BACKWARDS COMPATIBILE WAY:
# export __EXCEPTION_SOURCE__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[(${#__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[@]}-1)]}"
# export __EXCEPTION_LINE__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[(${#__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[@]}-2)]}"
export __EXCEPTION_SOURCE__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[-1]}"
export __EXCEPTION_LINE__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[-2]}"
export __EXCEPTION__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[@]:0:(${#__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[@]} - 2)}"
return 1 # so that we may continue with a "catch"
fi
}
Exception.GetLastException() {
if [[ -f /tmp/stored_exception ]] && [[ -f /tmp/stored_exception_line ]] && [[ -f /tmp/stored_exception_source ]]
then
cat /tmp/stored_exception
cat /tmp/stored_exception_line
cat /tmp/stored_exception_source
else
echo -e " \n${BASH_LINENO[1]}\n${BASH_SOURCE[2]#./}"
fi
rm -f /tmp/stored_exception /tmp/stored_exception_line /tmp/stored_exception_source
return 0
}
Feel free to use, fork and contribute - it's on GitHub.
bash does not abort the running execution in case something detects an error state (unless you set the -e flag). Programming languages which offer try/catch do this in order to inhibit a "bailing out" because of this special situation (hence typically called "exception").
In the bash, instead, only the command in question will exit with an exit code greater than 0, indicating that error state. You can check for that of course, but since there is no automatic bailing out of anything, a try/catch does not make sense. It is just lacking that context.
You can, however, simulate a bailing out by using sub shells which can terminate at a point you decide:
(
echo "Do one thing"
echo "Do another thing"
if some_condition
then
exit 3 # <-- this is our simulated bailing out
fi
echo "Do yet another thing"
echo "And do a last thing"
) # <-- here we arrive after the simulated bailing out, and $? will be 3 (exit code)
if [ $? = 3 ]
then
echo "Bail out detected"
fi
Instead of that some_condition with an if you also can just try a command, and in case it fails (has an exit code greater than 0), bail out:
(
echo "Do one thing"
echo "Do another thing"
some_command || exit 3
echo "Do yet another thing"
echo "And do a last thing"
)
...
Unfortunately, using this technique you are restricted to 255 different exit codes (1..255) and no decent exception objects can be used.
If you need more information to pass along with your simulated exception, you can use the stdout of the subshells, but that is a bit complicated and maybe another question ;-)
Using the above mentioned -e flag to the shell you can even strip that explicit exit statement:
(
set -e
echo "Do one thing"
echo "Do another thing"
some_command
echo "Do yet another thing"
echo "And do a last thing"
)
...