Bash: run command2 if command1 fails

These should do what you need:

cmd1 && cmd2 && echo success || echo epic fail

if cmd1 && cmd2; then
    echo success
else
    echo epic fail
fi

The pseudo-code in the question does not correspond to the title of the question.

If anybody needs to actually know how to run command 2 if command 1 fails, this is a simple explanation:

cmd1 || cmd2: This will run cmd1, and in case of failure it will run cmd2
cmd1 && cmd2: This will run cmd1, and in case of success it will run cmd2
cmd1 ; cmd2: This will run cmd1, and then it will run cmd2, independent of the failure or success of running cmd1.

Petr Uzel is spot on but you can also play with the magic $?.

$? holds the exit code from the last command executed, and if you use this you can write your scripts quite flexible.

This questions touches this topic a little bit, Best practice to use $? in bash? .

cmd1 
if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]
then
  echo "ok"
else
  echo "Fail"
fi

Then you also can react to different exit codes and do different things if you like.

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