I guess testing specifically for an exit code of 1 isn't as easy to remember. (grep -q notwanted /hay/stack ; test $? == 1) && echo "No violations found" Bu

I guess testing specifically for an exit code of 1 isn't as easy to remember. (grep -q notwanted /hay/stack ; test $? == 1) && echo "No violations found" But you're right...the simpler format would do the wrong thing if, for example, the file didn't exist or had bad permissions or was a directory instead of a file.