$?  –  Exit Status

$? is the decimal exit status of the most recent command executed.

Following the execution of a pipe, $? gives the exit status of the last command executed.

Following the execution of a function, $? gives the exit status the last command executed in the function. The return builtin command allows to define the exit status of a function.

Links

• POSIX specification
• Z Shell manual

Examples

Return from function with exit status 2 and print status

1 2 3

a() { return 2; } a echo $?

Output:

1

2