4 ms·

Oh my! That `||` is gorgeous. I hadn't seen that before.

• userbinator 12y ago
  It's like the opposite of && (continue until one alternative is false), for if you want to continue with alternatives in sequence until one alternative becomes true: a || b || c || ... This usage is commonly found in other places than the shell, like JavaScript, Perl, and PHP.
  • deafbybeheading 12y ago
    Thanks, I know `||` in general--I meant I hadn't seen the specific construction GP had used. The error handling to delete the output file in case the command failed is really elegant.
    • peff 12y ago
      It's actually a little dangerous; what happens when you hit "^C" and the process dies before getting a chance to clean up? It's safer to do: some_cmd >foo.tmp && mv foo.tmp foo The mv will do an atomic rename(), so that you either get the fully formed contents, or nothing at all.
      • deafbybeheading 12y ago
        Only if you interrupt the actual `rm`, no? If you interrupt the main command, you won't get a 0 exit code so the `||` branch still executes. Your mechanism is clearly safer, but the user is required to clean up `foo.tmp` themselves in case of failure, so it's not really comparable.