return

NAME

SYNOPSIS

return [n]

DESCRIPTION

Causes a function to stop executing and return the value specified by n to its caller.  If n is omitted, the return status is that of the last command executed in the function body.  If return is executed by a trap handler, the last command used to determine the status is the last command executed before the trap handler.  if return is executed during a DEBUG trap, the last command used to determine the status is the last command executed by the trap handler before return was invoked.  If return is used outside a function, but during execution of a script by the .  (source) command, it causes the shell to stop executing that script and return either n or the exit status of the last command executed within the script as the exit status of the script.  If n is supplied, the return value is its least significant 8 bits.  The return status is non-zero if return is supplied a non-numeric argument, or is used outside a function and not during execution of a script by . or source.  Any command associated with the RETURN trap is executed before execution resumes after the function or script.

SEE ALSO

This is extracted from the main bash man page, see there for more details.