If you're using: set -o errexit # or set -e if you prefer Then you probably also want: set -o pipefail Otherwise, it only checks that the last comma

If you're using: set -o errexit # or set -e if you prefer Then you probably also want: set -o pipefail Otherwise, it only checks that the last command succeeds, so something like: ls *.ssjkfle | wc -l will actually continue as success despite the "ls" failing.