Bash: setting and testing $?

You want to set $? in bash

?() {
  return ${1:-$?}
}

and then:

$ \? 2
$ echo $?
2 

You also want to test $?:

$ \? 2
$ \? && echo yes $? || echo no $?
no 2 

which is simpler than

$ test $? = 0 && echo yes $? || echo no $?
no 1 

which also replaces $? with the result of the test.

But how about this extended form that allows you to run a command while preserving (or forcing) the return code?

?() {
  set -- $? "$@"
  if test "$#" -le 2 -a -z "${2//[0-9]}"
  then return ${2:-$1}
  else "${@:2}"
       return $1
  fi
}

e.g.:

$ tar -xzf "$tar"
$ \? rm -fr "$tar"

which leaves $? set to the result of the tar extraction.

Of course a command which is purely numeric with no arguments is mistaken for an exit code.

Note the use of: set -- $? "$@" as function arguments are which is the only lexical scoped variables in bash.