Shell scripts can stop upon exception rather than handling each one manually. This can significanlty reduce logical clutter in a script. Stop a shell script on error for Unix / Linux / macOS shell by setting near the top of the .sh script file:

set -o errexit

This is a human-readable equivalent to set -e This works for commonly used Unix shells including Bash and Zsh.

Another useful option is to stop the script if any script variables are defined:

set -o nounset

Stop executing a Powershell script upon exception by adding near the top of the .ps1 Powershell script:

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'