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====== BASH - Output - Check Exit Status ======

To get the exit status, you use the special parameter **$?** after running the command:

<code bash>
command
status=$?
</code>

----

===== Check exit status =====

If you don't actually want to store the exit status, but simply want to take an action upon success or failure, just use if:

<code bash>
if command; then
    printf "it succeeded\n"
else
    printf "it failed\n"
fi
</code>

----

===== Exit Status from a piped command - use PIPESTATUS =====

What if you want the exit status of one command from a pipeline?

If you want the last command's status, no problem -- it's in **$?** just like before.

If you want some other command's status, use the PIPESTATUS array.

<WRAP info>
**NOTE:**  This is BASH only.

In the case of Zsh, it's lower-cased pipestatus). 

</WRAP>

Say you want the exit status of grep in the following:

<code bash>
grep foo somelogfile | head -5
status=${PIPESTATUS[0]}
</code>

----

Bash 3.0 added a **pipefail** option as well, which can be used if you simply want to take action upon failure of the grep:

<code bash>
set -o pipefail
if ! grep foo somelogfile | head -5; then
    printf "uh oh\n"
fi
</code>

----