Traps

Traps allow a script to execute code on various signals. In pxltrm (a pixel art editor written in bash) traps are used to redraw the user interface on window resize. Another use case is cleaning up temporary files on script exit.

Traps should be added near the start of scripts so any early errors are also caught.

Do something on script exit

# Clear screen on script exit.
trap 'printf \\033[2J\\033[H\\033[m' EXIT

# Run a function on script exit.
# 'clean_up' is the name of a function.
trap clean_up EXIT

Ignore terminal interrupt (CTRL+C, SIGINT)

trap '' INT