Linux and Unix Shell Programming

19.5. Testing the values returned by a function

To test a value returned by a called function you can use the last status command directly after the function is called from your script. For example:

check_it_is_a_directory $FILENAME # this is the function call and check 
if [ $? = 0 ] # use the last status command now to test 
then 
  echo "All is OK" 
else 
  echo " Something went wrong!" 
fi

A much better way is to use an if statement when testing on either a return 0 or a return 1 value. Enclosing the function call with an if statement makes better logical reading. For example:

if check_it_is_a_directory $FILENAME; then 
  echo "All is OK" 
  # do something ?? 
else 
  echo "Something went wrong !" 
  # do something ?? 
fi

If the function is going to echo out ...