systask status / linux return code for multiple commands

[Quentin]

If I use systask to run two linux commands on one line, e.g.:

systask command "gzip ~/notthere.txt; touch ~/foo.txt" status=mystatus shell wait;
%put >>&mystatus<< ;

The status returned is the status of the second command (touch in this case).  So even if the first command (gzip) fails, my status will be set to 0 because the second (touch) succeeded.  I recognize it's linux setting the exit code, not SAS. 

Is there an easy way to grab the maximum status from all the commands that were submitted?

Okay, I googled, looks like using the && operator could work for what I want.  If the first command fails, the second command won't be executed and I'll get the exit code from the first command:

systask command 'gzip ~/notthere.txt && touch ~/foo.txt' status=mystatus shell wait;
%put >>&mystatus<< ;

Is there a better way?

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

&& is the UNIX way to do this; you'll see it in all kinds of setup/installation and other shell scripts.

You can, of course, always catch the exit codes separately:

filename os pipe 'gzip ~/notthere.txt; RC1=$?; touch ~/foo.txt; RC2=$?; echo "rc1=$RC1 rc2=$RC2"';

data retcode;
infile os end=done;
length retcodes $20;
input;
if done;
retcodes = _infile_;
run;