Some users find it confusing that exit and return in a pipe construct do not affect the original shell, document it to help them understand what is going on. --- Sorry for the delay, it took me some time to get back to this.
mksh.1 | 15 ++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) --- a/mksh.1 +++ b/mksh.1 @@ -2927,6 +2927,10 @@ function. A function can be made to finish immediately using the .Ic return command; this may also be used to explicitly specify the exit status. +Note that when called in a subshell, +.Ic return +will only exit that subshell and will not cause the original shell to exit +a running function (see the while...read loop FAQ.) .Pp Functions defined with the .Ic function @@ -3461,7 +3465,7 @@ Note that the Bourne shell differs here; it does pass these file descriptors on. .Pp .It Ic exit Op Ar status -The shell exits with the specified exit status. +The shell or subshell exits with the specified exit status. If .Ar status is not specified, the exit status is the current value of the @@ -6741,6 +6745,15 @@ cannot be propagated if run in a pipelin bar \*(Ba baz \*(Ba while read foo; do ...; done .Ed .Pp +.Ed +Also note that +.Ic exit +in the inner loop will only exit the subshell and not the original shell. +Likewise, if the code is inside a function, +.Ic return +in the inner loop will only exit the subshell and won't terminate the +function. +.Pp Use co-processes instead: .Bd -literal -offset indent bar \*(Ba baz \*(Ba& -- Jean Delvare SUSE L3 Support
