how to run 2 commands after failure in a loop?

Question

I want to write a simple loop like this:

for f in my_file0 my_file1 my_file2; do
    (( $(find . -name $f | wc -l > 0 ))
done

However, I want the loop to break the script if fails and print an error message, so I did this:

for f in my_file0 my_file1 my_file2; do
    (( $(find . -name $f | wc -l > 0 )) || echo error && exit 1
done

which exits at the first iteration, obviously.

So, I moved on to this solution

for f in my_file0 my_file1 my_file2; do
    (( $(find . -name $f | wc -l > 0 )) || (echo error && exit 1)
done

which, as I understand it, only exits the sub-shell :-(

So, now I write it like this:

for f in my_file0 my_file1 my_file2; do
    (( $(find . -name $f | wc -l > 0 ))
    if (( $? > 0 )); then echo error && exit 1; fi
done

but that sucks...

What can I do, beside calling a function that will run those two commands?

Answer 1

Use curly braces instead of parentheses, that one doesn't spawn a new subshell:

... || { echo error; exit 1; }

Notice that – unlike with parentheses – you'll need to put a semicolon even after the last statement.

Also note that I've changed && into a ;, I think you should even exit if echo fails for whatever unlikely reason; feel free to change that back if you really wish to continue the loop if echo fails.