Environment & Shell Customization (Aliases/Functions/.Bashrc)
Catch Command Errors Before They Byte You
🧩 The Challenge
How many times have you run a long command, maybe piped a few things, then moved on, only to find out way later that the first step failed silently? And you just skimmed the output and missed that critical non-zero exit code. It’s a huge time sink.
đź’ˇ The Fix
Get your shell prompt to scream at you when the last command *didn’t* exit successfully. It’s a simple change to your `PS1` that slaps the exit status right in front of you when it’s anything but zero. You’ll stop chasing down phantom failures.
export PS1='[\u@\h \W$(if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then echo " \$?"; fi)]\$ '⚙️ Why It Works
See, your shell sets `$?` to the exit status of the *last* foreground command. This little snippet captures that `$?` *just before* the prompt redraws, and if it’s not zero (meaning success), it sticks it right there in your face. It’s brilliant.
🚀 Pro-Tip: Make that exit code red. Or blink. Whatever gets your attention. Add some ANSI escape codes to the echo.
Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 10/22/2026