[PLUG] Returning a status without leaving an environment variable hanging around

["K.S. Bhaskar via plug" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

I have a file to be sourced by a shell (typically bash, but it needs work with POSIX shells). If the sourcing succeeds, it sets up an environment and assigns values to environment variables, but if it fails, it leaves the environment variables unchanged (unsets all environment variables it uses).

The high level structure in question is

if <condition> ; then

  if <run program> ; then

    clean up a temporary directory

  else

    report error

  fi

else

  report error

fi

I would like to enhance it to return a status which can be queried, e.g., with $?. I realize that I can use an environment variable with a name that is guaranteed for all practical purposes to not collide with any existing environment variable. I was wondering if there is any way to return a status without using an environment variable, e.g., if there were some way to return $xyz and unset xyz in one fell swoop.

Thanks in advance.

Regards

– Bhaskar

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