Exactly what the title says. I'm not having much luck finding the proper documentation to see what -xe does in the following use case:
#!/bin/bash -xe
what do those parameters do and where it is documented?
asked May 22, 2012 at 1:13
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Are you talking about parameters that are passed to the BASH binary, or are you talking about functions and parameters within the BASH scripting language?– Richard KellerMay 21, 2012 at 23:47
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Referring to the parameters that are passed to the BASH binary, such as: #!/bin/bash -xe– imaginativeMay 21, 2012 at 23:57
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6 Answers
If you read the man page for bash you'll find the following at the top of the OPTIONS section:
All of the single-character shell options documented in the description of the set builtin command can be used as options when the shell is invoked. In addition, bash interprets the following options when it is invoked...
And if you read the documentation for the set command later on in the man page, you'll find:
-e Exit immediately if a pipeline (which may consist of a single simple command), a subshell command enclosed in parentheses, or one of the commands executed as part of a command list enclosed by braces (see SHELL GRAMMAR above) exits with a non-zero status. -x After expanding each simple command, for command, case command, select command, or arithmetic for command, display the expanded value of PS4, followed by the command and its expanded arguments or associated word list.
In other words, -e makes the shell exit immediately whenever
something returns an error (this is often used in shell scripts as a
failsafe mechanism), and -x enables verbose execution of scripts so
that you can see what's happening.
Type the following on your console to get an explanation of the BASH arguments:
bash -c "help set"
To answer your question:
-e Exit immediately if a command exits with a non-zero status.
-x Print commands and their arguments as they are executed.
answered May 22, 2012 at 1:25
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1@Nagev To get the bash version of
help setregardless of what shell you're using, the full command is necessary. Jan 6, 2021 at 22:48
From the manpage:
All of the single-character shell options documented in the description of the set builtin command can be used as options when the shell is invoked.
So have a look at the set builtin.
Are you thinking of the stuff where you do set -x set -e set -...? running help set gives those.
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1I'm thinking of parameters used such as the following: #!/bin/bash -xe May 21, 2012 at 23:58
I use excellent Bash Reference Manual as one-stop documentation for Bash language. I found it more useful than man pages. The section relevant for you (description of -e, -x switches can be found here: set builtin
Where is the best place to read documentation on what parameters that are passed to bash such as -x and -e are? I tried the man 1 bash, but it doesn't seem to be covered there.
Read the OPTIONS section of the basj manpage.
