This LPIC-1 practice question tests your understanding of shells, scripting and data management. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A developer needs to ensure a bash script exits immediately if any command fails, and also prints each command before executing it. Which set of shell options should be used at the beginning of the script?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "immediately / without restart"
Why it matters: Time or reboot constraint — the correct answer must take effect right away without requiring a reboot or reload.
set -ex
-e exits on error, -x prints commands.
set -e
Why wrong: -e exits on error but does not print commands.
set -vx
Why wrong: -v prints shell input lines, but does not exit on error.
set -ux
Why wrong: -u treats unset variables as error, -x prints commands, but does not exit on command failure.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
set -ex
Option A is correct because `set -ex` combines two essential shell options: `-e` (errexit) causes the script to exit immediately if any command returns a non-zero exit status, and `-x` (xtrace) prints each command (after expansion) to stderr before executing it. This is the standard way to achieve both behaviors in a single line, as required by the question.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
set -ex
Why this is correct
-e exits on error, -x prints commands.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "immediately / without restart" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
set -e
Why it's wrong here
-e exits on error but does not print commands.
set -vx
Why it's wrong here
-v prints shell input lines, but does not exit on error.
set -ux
Why it's wrong here
-u treats unset variables as error, -x prints commands, but does not exit on command failure.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse `-v` (verbose, which prints input lines as read) with `-x` (xtrace, which prints commands before execution), or forget that `-e` is required for exit-on-error, leading them to pick `set -vx` or `set -ux` instead of the correct `set -ex`.
Trap categories for this question
Command / output trap
-e exits on error but does not print commands.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, `set -e` works by checking the exit status of each simple command, pipeline, or list; if a command returns non-zero, the shell immediately calls `exit` with that status, unless the command is part of a conditional (e.g., `if`, `while`, `until`, or `&&`/`||`). The `-x` option causes the shell to output a trace of each command to stderr after parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion, prefixed by `+` (or the value of `PS4`). A real-world scenario is debugging complex deployment scripts where you need both immediate failure detection and full command logging to trace issues.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A practitioner preparing for the LPIC-1 exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
What to study next
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Shells, Scripting and Data Management — This question tests Shells, Scripting and Data Management — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: set -ex — Option A is correct because `set -ex` combines two essential shell options: `-e` (errexit) causes the script to exit immediately if any command returns a non-zero exit status, and `-x` (xtrace) prints each command (after expansion) to stderr before executing it. This is the standard way to achieve both behaviors in a single line, as required by the question.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Yes — watch for: "immediately / without restart". Time or reboot constraint — the correct answer must take effect right away without requiring a reboot or reload.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This LPIC-1 practice question is part of Courseiva's free LPI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the LPIC-1 exam.
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