Well that's exciting. I learned a lot of uses for ":" today.
However, the only one I already knew...
if some-command; then
: # command required
else
echo "command failed"
fi
if ! some-command; then
echo "command failed"
fi
> If the pipeline does not begin with the "!" reserved word, the exit status shall be the exit status of the last command specified in the pipeline. Otherwise, the exit status shall be the logical NOT of the exit status of the last command
https://github.com/anordal/shellharden/blob/master/how_to_do...
Do you have a real-world example where we would like to preserve `$?` after the `if` (which `if` specifically branches on the result code of the command it tests)? Where we want to use the actual return code that the `if` did not handle itself.
I am asking because I have never needed preserving the `$?` outside of an `if`, nor have I ever seen this in somebody else's scripts, and I'm curious.
TL;DR: The old-school empty branch preserves $?, while logical negation doesn’t. Sure I guess, but this is not always relevant.