Question

I have a function which I use in my shell script and based on a certain condition I’d like to call “exit 0” in that function so that the entire script exits. But for some reason the program still runs after calling exit 0 in the function. Why?

check()
{
    printf "Would you like to try again?\n"
    read S
    if [ "$S" = "y" ]
    then 
        ./myprog
    else    
        exit 0  
    fi
}

And I call it like this:

if test $WRONG -eq 7
then
    printf "Sorry\n"
    check
fi

Answer 1

What you have works for me:

$ cat test-shell-exit
#!/bin/sh
check()
{
    printf "Would you like to try again?\n"
    read S
    if [ "$S" = "y" ]
    then
        echo Try again
    else
        echo Done
        exit 0
    fi
}
echo Before
check
echo After

$ ./test-shell-exit 
Before
Would you like to try again?
y
Try again
After

$ ./test-shell-exit 
Before
Would you like to try again?
n
Done

Could you try this test case and update your answer with any differences from it? It appears the problem you’re running into is caused by something you haven’t mentioned.

---

Update: Example of using a loop instead of calling your program again:

$ cat test-shell-exit 
#!/bin/sh
check()
{
    printf "Would you like to try again?\n"
    read S
    if [ "$S" = "y" ]
    then
        echo Try again
    else
        echo Done
        exit 0
    fi
}
while true; do
    echo Before
    check
    echo After
done

$ ./test-shell-exit 
Before
Would you like to try again?
y
Try again
After
Before
Would you like to try again?
y
Try again
After
Before
Would you like to try again?
n
Done