Linux Basic — Exit & Quit Handling

Exit & Quit Handling

Robust menu scripts trap interrupts and clean up temporary state. Common tasks: remove temp files, restore terminal settings, and save session state.

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Basic Trap

cleanup() {
  echo "cleaning up"
  rm -f "$TMPFILE"
}
trap cleanup EXIT INT TERM

TMPFILE=$(mktemp)

trap ... EXIT always runs on normal exit and most signals. For finer control trap INT and TERM separately.

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Restore Terminal State

If your menu changes stty (raw mode, echo off), always restore it in trap:

orig_stty=$(stty -g)
trap 'stty "$orig_stty"; cleanup' EXIT
stty -echo -icanon

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Save State on Quit

When the user quits, serialise minimal state to ~/.mytoolstate so the next run resumes.

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