Re: backquotes inconsistent with errexit (set -e) and export

[Paul Jarc]

Hans Ecke <hans@ecke.ws> wrote:
>         However, using the 'export' builtin will disable this behavior:
>            set -e;export VVV=`false`
>         will not stop the script.

That's because the export command's exit status is 0, regardless of
what happens while computing its arguments.  This is not the only case
where -e doesn't mean what we might wish it to mean - a subshell like
(false) also will not cause the script to exit.  But this is how it's
specified, and it's not going to change.

Also, -e means subtly different things in different sh
implementations, so it's more trouble than it's worth for portable
scripting.  I've given up and switched to inserting "&&" everywhere.


paul