how to get return code in one line

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I know how to get the returning code of a function but wonder if I can combine the follwoing two lines into one:
e.g.:
#!/bin/shell
...
#line 1
MyFunction arg1 arg 2
#line 2
rec=$? #this will be evaluated later
....

like in c/c++, we'd write one line:
rec=MyFunction(arg1, arg 2)

Because I have many of those funciton calls in one script where all return codes need to be collected & evaluated later. It'd look nicer with one less line here.

Thanks in advance.

2

The one thing that is hard to do is make shell look nice.

The closest you can get is

if do_my_thing ....
then
       echo it worked
fi

but you don't get the exit code into a variable.

3

very neat! I tested it & looks the if statement evaluates if the returning code is 0 or not, isn't it??

However, I failed to make it to check if it is non-zero- tried a few syntax with no luck... such as: if [ ! domything ], if [ domything -ne 0 ].... can you make it?:wink:

4

No alas, I haven't. However some programs can reverse the return code, eg grep with the -v option.

There is a program called "true" and one called "false", there should be one called "not"....

#!/bin/sh
if $@
then 
    exit 1
fi
exit 0

then you could do

if not myprogram
then
.....
5

now you lost me- what is $@ ?

6

all the variable arguments except $0, useful as $0 is normally the script name, I'm suggesting that the first CODE block be put in a file called "not".

7

wow... thank you "Porter"- or whoever you really are;-)
I've been doing a program with this new language in last couple of weeks. Now I'm really interested in learning more! I want to be as good as you one day... oh well, just wishful thinking;-)