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I have some confusion in how following expression works. 

cc file_name.c  && ./a.out

When filename.c gets compiled successfully , its exist status would be 0 (zero). So as per logical && operation , second expression ( ./a.out ) not suppose to be executed. But it still works and gives me result. How it works ?

Thanks

Pavunkumar
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2 Answers2

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0 means success in the shell. It's not the same as in C. From the bash man page:

AND and OR lists are sequences of one of more pipelines separated by the && and ││ control operators, respectively. AND and OR lists are executed with left associativity. An AND list has the form

command1 && command2

command2 is executed if, and only if, command1 returns an exit status of zero.

Carl Norum
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When executing shell commands, a return value of 0 means the command was executed successfully. Non-zero value means there was an error processing the command. So, if previous command was a success it would proceed to the next command, else abort.

devang
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