Run multiple commands in one line with `;`, `&&` and `||` - Linux Tips

There are 3 ways to run multiple shell commands in one line:

1) Use ;

No matter the first command cmd1 run successfully or not, always run the second command cmd2:

# cmd1; cmd2
$ cd myfolder; ls   # no matter cd to myfolder successfully, run ls

2) Use &&

Only when the first command cmd1 run successfully, run the second command cmd2:

# cmd1 && cmd2
$ cd myfolder && ls  # run ls only after cd to myfolder

3) Use ||

Only when the first command cmd1 failed to run, run the second command cmd2:

# cmd1 || cmd2
$ cd myfolder || ls  # if failed cd to myfolder, `ls` will run

Comments

[Ian Pride]

Ternary (or more) operations on a single line:

[[ 1 -eq 1 ]] && echo true || echo false

[[ "${var}" == "string" ]] && ([[ "$(id -un)" == "root" ]] && echo ROOT || echo USER) || echo false

And can be multiple lines:

[[ 1 -eq 1 ]] &&
echo true ||
echo false

[[ "${var}" == "string" ]] &&
([[ "$(id -un)" == "root" ]] &&
    echo ROOT ||
    echo USER) ||
echo false

[Thomas H Jones II]

I use the <CMD> && <SUCCESS_ACTION> || <FAIL_ACTION> method quite a lot ...annoying that BASH-linters complain about it.

[Chaitanya Shahare]

Thanks for these examples, they are really helpful

[BC]

Nice 👍 thanks for the add-up, Ian

[Ian Pride]

You're welcome; I just thought it would add a little perspective of how this concept can be used in various ways. Some might always prefer to use if/else statements to be safe & sometimes it is necessary, but I find myself using this type of 'shortcut' more times than not when it's safe to use.

[gokayburuc.dev]

I was searching that for a long time. Thanks a lot.

I added it to .bashrc and .zshrc files with the alias commands . And now one command is enough for the maintain system operations.

alias maintain_sys="sudo apt update &&
 sudo apt upgrade && 
sudo apt autoclean" 

[Pankaj Sharma]

Thanks for that

[Bill Naylor]

I'm quite happy with using ';', '|', etc. however I generally am using them from an 'end-user' perspective. I frequently use commands like:

mvn clean package >& /tmp/out-comptest; less +G /tmp/out-comptest

then exit less, but may after want to see 'what was important in that file', is there a short hand way to run the last command of that sequence ... viz less +G /tmp/out-comptest?

[Nino]

Thanks

[Ajay Kumar]

thanks

[Michael Stangeland]

Can this be nested?

A && (B && echo passed || echo B failed ) || echo A failed

[nem8]

Sure, but you need to re-write it slightly..
echo 'Test' > A
cat A && echo 'A passed' || echo 'A failed' && (cat B && echo 'B passed' || echo 'B failed')
Test
A passed
cat: B: No such file or directory
B failed