Linux – what is the difference between “command && command” and “command ; command”

bashcommand linelinuxshellUbuntu

I see these two usage on Ubuntu "command && command" and "command ; command",
e.g. apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

What would differ if I use apt-get update; apt-get upgrade?
I am not asking for this specific usage but in general what is the difference between these two usage?

Best Answer

&& is a logical operator. ; is simple sequencing.

In cmd1 && cmd2, cmd2 will only be run if cmd1 exits with a successful return code.

Whereas in cmd1; cmd2, cmd2 will run regardless of the exit status of cmd1 (assuming you haven't set your shell to exit on all failure in your script or something).

On a related note, with cmd1 || cmd2, using the || 'OR' logical operator, cmd2 will only be run if cmd1 fails (returns a non-zero exit code).

These logical operators are sometimes used in scripts in place of a basic if statement. For example,

if [[ -f "$foo" ]]; then mv "$foo" "${foo%.txt}.mkd"; fi

...can be more concisely achieved with:

[[ -f "$foo" ]] && mv "$foo" "${foo%.txt}.mkd"
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