Linux and Unix Shell Programming

26.3. trap

The trap command allows you to trap incoming signals to your scripts. The format of the trap command is:

trap name signal(s) 

The name is a list of instructions to be performed when the signal is caught. In reality a function should be called that deals specifically with trapped signals. The name should be surrounded by double quotes (" "). The signal(s) are the incoming signals.

When a signal is trapped a script will generally be in the middle of some processing. The most common form of action to take is:

1.	Clean up temporary files.
2.	Ignore the signals.
3.	Ask the user if the script is really to be terminated.

Here’s a table of the most common trap usages:

trap " " 2 3	Ignore the signals 2 and 3; user cannot terminate
trap ...