Is there a TRY CATCH command in Bash

I've developed an almost flawless try & catch implementation in bash, that allows you to write code like:

try 
    echo 'Hello'
    false
    echo 'This will not be displayed'

catch 
    echo "Error in $__EXCEPTION_SOURCE__ at line: $__EXCEPTION_LINE__!"

You can even nest the try-catch blocks inside themselves!

try {
    echo 'Hello'

    try {
        echo 'Nested Hello'
        false
        echo 'This will not execute'
    } catch {
        echo "Nested Caught (@ $__EXCEPTION_LINE__)"
    }

    false
    echo 'This will not execute too'

} catch {
    echo "Error in $__EXCEPTION_SOURCE__ at line: $__EXCEPTION_LINE__!"
}

The code is a part of my bash boilerplate/framework. It further extends the idea of try & catch with things like error handling with backtrace and exceptions (plus some other nice features).

Here's the code that's responsible just for try & catch:

set -o pipefail
shopt -s expand_aliases
declare -ig __oo__insideTryCatch=0

# if try-catch is nested, then set +e before so the parent handler doesn't catch us
alias try="[[ \$__oo__insideTryCatch -gt 0 ]] && set +e;
           __oo__insideTryCatch+=1; ( set -e;
           trap \"Exception.Capture \${LINENO}; \" ERR;"
alias catch=" ); Exception.Extract \$? || "

Exception.Capture() {
    local script="${BASH_SOURCE[1]#./}"

    if [[ ! -f /tmp/stored_exception_source ]]; then
        echo "$script" > /tmp/stored_exception_source
    fi
    if [[ ! -f /tmp/stored_exception_line ]]; then
        echo "$1" > /tmp/stored_exception_line
    fi
    return 0
}

Exception.Extract() {
    if [[ $__oo__insideTryCatch -gt 1 ]]
    then
        set -e
    fi

    __oo__insideTryCatch+=-1

    __EXCEPTION_CATCH__=( $(Exception.GetLastException) )

    local retVal=$1
    if [[ $retVal -gt 0 ]]
    then
        # BACKWARDS COMPATIBILE WAY:
        # export __EXCEPTION_SOURCE__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[(${#__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[@]}-1)]}"
        # export __EXCEPTION_LINE__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[(${#__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[@]}-2)]}"
        export __EXCEPTION_SOURCE__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[-1]}"
        export __EXCEPTION_LINE__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[-2]}"
        export __EXCEPTION__="${__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[@]:0:(${#__EXCEPTION_CATCH__[@]} - 2)}"
        return 1 # so that we may continue with a "catch"
    fi
}

Exception.GetLastException() {
    if [[ -f /tmp/stored_exception ]] && [[ -f /tmp/stored_exception_line ]] && [[ -f /tmp/stored_exception_source ]]
    then
        cat /tmp/stored_exception
        cat /tmp/stored_exception_line
        cat /tmp/stored_exception_source
    else
        echo -e " \n${BASH_LINENO[1]}\n${BASH_SOURCE[2]#./}"
    fi

    rm -f /tmp/stored_exception /tmp/stored_exception_line /tmp/stored_exception_source
    return 0
}

Feel free to use, fork and contribute - it's on GitHub.

Is there a TRY CATCH command in Bash?

No.

Bash doesn't have as many luxuries as one can find in many programming languages.

There is no try/catch in bash; however, one can achieve similar behavior using && or ||.

Using ||:

if command1 fails then command2 runs as follows

command1 || command2

Similarly, using &&, command2 will run if command1 is successful

The closest approximation of try/catch is as follows

{ # try

    command1 &&
    #save your output

} || { # catch
    # save log for exception 
}

Also bash contains some error handling mechanisms, as well

set -e

it stops your script if any simple command fails.

And also why not if...else. It is your best friend.

Based on some answers I found here, I made myself a small helper file to source for my projects:

trycatch.sh

#!/bin/bash

function try()
{
    [[ $- = *e* ]]; SAVED_OPT_E=$?
    set +e
}

function throw()
{
    exit $1
}

function catch()
{
    export ex_code=$?
    (( $SAVED_OPT_E )) && set +e
    return $ex_code
}

function throwErrors()
{
    set -e
}

function ignoreErrors()
{
    set +e
}

here is an example how it looks in use:

#!/bin/bash
export AnException=100
export AnotherException=101

# start with a try
try
(   # open a subshell !!!
    echo "do something"
    [ someErrorCondition ] && throw $AnException

    echo "do something more"
    executeCommandThatMightFail || throw $AnotherException

    throwErrors # automaticatly end the try block, if command-result is non-null
    echo "now on to something completely different"
    executeCommandThatMightFail

    echo "it's a wonder we came so far"
    executeCommandThatFailsForSure || true # ignore a single failing command

    ignoreErrors # ignore failures of commands until further notice
    executeCommand1ThatFailsForSure
    local result = $(executeCommand2ThatFailsForSure)
    [ result != "expected error" ] && throw $AnException # ok, if it's not an expected error, we want to bail out!
    executeCommand3ThatFailsForSure

    # make sure to clear $ex_code, otherwise catch * will run
    # echo "finished" does the trick for this example
    echo "finished"
)
# directly after closing the subshell you need to connect a group to the catch using ||
catch || {
    # now you can handle
    case $ex_code in
        $AnException)
            echo "AnException was thrown"
        ;;
        $AnotherException)
            echo "AnotherException was thrown"
        ;;
        *)
            echo "An unexpected exception was thrown"
            throw $ex_code # you can rethrow the "exception" causing the script to exit if not caught
        ;;
    esac
}