LFCS Question #538: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

Question

Which of the following commands will print the exit value of the previous command to the screen in bash?

Options

• Aecho $?
• Becho $#
• Cecho $exit
• Decho $status
• Eecho $&}

Explanation

The special shell variable $? in bash holds the exit status of the most recently executed foreground command.

Common mistakes.

• B. $# expands to the number of positional parameters (arguments) passed to a script or function, not the exit status of the last command.
• C. $exit is not a standard bash variable that stores the exit status of the previous command; this variable name is not recognized by bash for this purpose.
• D. $status is not a standard bash variable for the exit status; it is typically used in other shells like csh or tcsh but not bash.
• E. $&}} is syntactically incorrect and not a valid bash variable for accessing the exit status of the previous command.

Concept tested. Bash special parameter $?

Reference. https://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/bash/manual/bash.html#Special-Parameters

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