How to use multiple commands after "||" in Bash

Question

Imagine the code:

ls || echo "Unable to execute ls (returned non zero)" 

What if I needed to execute more commands like:

ls || echo "this is echo 1" <some operator> echo "this is echo 2" <some operator> exit 1 

in C (assumming I have a function ls) I could do (even if it looks insane):

ls() || (command1() && command2()); 

but I doubt I can use parentheses like this in bash.

I know I can create a Bash function that would contain these commands, but what if I needed to combine this with exit 1 (exit in a function would exit that function, not whole script)?

Answer 1

You can group multiple commands within { }. Saying:

some_command || { command1; command2; } 

would execute command1 and command2 if some_command exited with a non-zero return code.

{}

{ list; } 

Placing a list of commands between curly braces causes the list to be executed in the current shell context. No subshell is created. The semicolon (or newline) following list is required.