Bash - Exit parent script from child script

Question

I have a Bash parent script that on unexpected input calls an error logging child script that logs the error. I also want the execution to halt when the error occurs and the error script is called. But if I call exit from the error handling script it does not stop the parent script from executing. How may I go about stopping a parent script from a child?

Answer 1

try..

#normal flow
[[ $(check_error_condition) ]] && /some/error_reporter.sh || exit 1

so,

• when the error_reporter will exit with exit status > 0 the parent will terminate too
• if the error_reporter will exit with status = 0 the parent continues...

You don't want stop the parent from a child (the parents usually don't like this behavior) :), you instead want tell to parent - need stop and he will stop itself (if want) ;)

Answer 2

Try:

In parent script:

trap "echo exitting because my child killed me.>&2;exit" SIGUSR1

In child script:

kill -SIGUSR1 `ps --pid $$ -oppid=`; exit

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Other way was:

In child script:

kill -9 `ps --pid $$ -oppid=`; exit

But, it is not recommended, because the parent needs to have some information about getting killed & thus do some cleanup if required.

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Another way: Instead of calling the child script, exec it.

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However, as pointed out in other answer, the cleanest way is to exit from parent, after the child returns.