Controlling Shell Script Failure Behavior in Jenkins Pipelines

Each issue is described with a brief image and text illustrating a Jenkins tip.

Problem

Do not want a Shell script to stop when a command fails.

Want the script to keep running and report the failure.

Solution

Method One

When running a Shell step you can use the built‑in +e option to control error handling, which disables the default "non‑zero exit" abort behavior.

Please refer to the four examples below for test shells and console output.

Example One

When a command returns a non‑zero status, the error is ignored and the script continues.

<code style="padding: 16px; color: black; display: -webkit-box; font-family: Operator Mono, Consolas, Monaco, Menlo, monospace; font-size: 12px">$ <span style="color: #5c2699; line-height: 26px">set</span> +e<br/>$ ls no-exit-file<br/>$ whoami<br/></code>

Example Two

If a command returns a non‑zero status, the entire script exits immediately.

<code style="padding: 16px; color: black; display: -webkit-box; font-family: Operator Mono, Consolas, Monaco, Menlo, monospace; font-size: 12px">$ <span style="color: #5c2699; line-height: 26px">set</span> -e<br/>$ ls no-exit-file<br/>$ whoami<br/></code>

Method Two

Example Three

Another way is to append || true to the command.

<code style="padding: 16px; color: black; display: -webkit-box; font-family: Operator Mono, Consolas, Monaco, Menlo, monospace; font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #007400; line-height: 26px"># Command may fail but we ignore the failure</span><br/>$ ls no-exit-file || <span style="color: #aa0d91; line-height: 26px">true</span><br/></code>

Example Four

To run a custom action on failure, append || <doSomethingOnFailure>.

<code style="padding: 16px; color: black; display: -webkit-box; font-family: Operator Mono, Consolas, Monaco, Menlo, monospace; font-size: 12px"><span style="color: #007400; line-height: 26px"># Command may fail and we want to handle the failure</span><br/><span style="color: #007400; line-height: 26px"># If an error occurs, set variable error to true</span><br/>$ ls no-exit-file || error=<span style="color: #aa0d91; line-height: 26px">true</span><br/><br/><span style="color: #007400; line-height: 26px"># Then check the error variable; if true, exit the shell</span><br/>$ <span style="color: #aa0d91; line-height: 26px">if</span> [ <span style="color: #3F6E74; line-height: 26px">$error</span> ]<br/>$ <span style="color: #aa0d91; line-height: 26px">then</span> <br/>$    <span style="color: #5c2699; line-height: 26px">exit</span> -1<br/>$ <span style="color: #aa0d91; line-height: 26px">fi</span><br/></code>