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run-commands-sequentially.md

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Run commands sequentially

User Story

  • If I run CLI command A, I want to run command B immediately when A finishes.
  • B should not start running before A finishes.
  • Time is money, so the terminal should not sit idle. B should run ASAP after A finishes.

Solution: the && operator

Much like in JavaScript, && in bash is the 'logical AND' operator. It only executes the right side after the left side evaluates as true.

$ true && echo "This will be output"
This will be output

$ false && echo "This will not be output"
$

A practical use case

This sequence of commands is so common that many devs make an alias for it. The alias includes the && operator.

  1. npm install runs. This can take a while if you have lots of dependencies or are installing a large package with lots of dependencies.
  2. After npm install (finally) finishes, npm start runs.
npm install && npm start

References