Error Handling and Traps

Part of the Bash course

Every script you have written so far assumes things go right. A command that cannot find a file, a directory that does not exist, a typo in a variable name: by default, Bash shrugs at all of these and keeps running the next line anyway. That is fine while you are experimenting at a prompt, but it is exactly the wrong behavior for a script that installs software, deletes files, or configures a server, where charging...

Picture an assembly line where each station bolts on one more part. A well-run line has a stop button wired to every station: the moment one station finds a defective part, the whole line halts right there, before a half-finished product gets shipped out the far end. Bash, left to its defaults, is an assembly line with no stop button. ...