On Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:22:20 +0000, Unruh wrote:

> kmlincoln100@hotmail.com (Matthew Lincoln) writes:
>
>>I am not sure about on how to specify that a second command should only
>>be execute in case that the first commnd fails/succeeds.
>
>>When I enter:
>
>>cmd1 | gzip -f ... && cmd2
>
>>Is then cmd2 executed only if cmd1 is finished successfully or if gzip
>>is finished successfully?
>
> No. They go in order. the && will apply to gzip. BUt if cmd1 fails, the
> pipe is broken and gzip fails anyway.
>
>>What if I want cmd2 only to execute if both (cmd1 and gzip) end
>>successfully?
>
>>What about the other way: cmd2 should only be executed if
>
>>a) cmd1 failed
>
>>b) cmd1 or gzip failed?
>
> man bash

The exit status of a pipeline in bash is the exit status of the last
command in the pipeline - but you can use set -o pipefail to make it
error for any command in the pipeline, not just the last.