From 61841485eedbf447980964bb3bb0601b48b41fe4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Vidar Holen <vidar@vidarholen.net>
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2022 08:56:52 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Created SC2317 (markdown)

---
 SC2317.md | 72 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 72 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 SC2317.md

diff --git a/SC2317.md b/SC2317.md
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+++ b/SC2317.md
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+## Command appears to be unreachable. Check usage (or ignore if invoked indirectly).
+
+### Problematic code:
+
+```sh
+usage() {
+  echo >&2 "Usage: $0 -i input"
+  exit 1
+}     
+if [ "$1" = "--help" ]
+then
+  usage
+  exit 0   # Unreachable
+fi
+```
+
+### Correct code:
+
+```sh
+usage() {
+  echo >&2 "Usage: $0 -i input"
+}     
+if [ "$1" = "--help" ]
+then
+  usage
+  exit 0
+fi
+```
+
+### Rationale:
+
+The problematic code wanted to exit with success if the user explicitly asked for `--help`. However, since the `usage` function already had an `exit 1`, this statement could never run.
+
+One possible solution is to change `usage()` to only echo, and let callers be responsible for exiting.
+
+### Exceptions:
+
+ShellCheck may incorrectly believe that code is unreachable if it's invoked by variable name or in a trap. In such a case, please [[Ignore]] the message. 
+
+Note in particular that since unreachable commands may come in clusters, it's useful to use ShellCheck's filewide or functionwide ignore directives. A `disable` directive before a function ignores the entire function:
+
+```
+#!/bin/bash
+...
+# shellcheck disable=SC2317  # Don't warn about unreachable commands in this function
+start() {
+  echo Starting
+  /etc/init.d/foo start
+}
+"$1"
+exit 0
+```
+
+A disable directive after the shebang, before any commands, will ignore the entire file:
+```
+#!/bin/bash
+# Test script #1
+# shellcheck disable=SC2317  # Don't warn about unreachable commands in this file
+
+echo "Temporarily disabled"
+exit 0
+
+run-test1
+run-test2
+run-test3
+```
+
+Defined functions are assumed to be reachable when the script ends (not exits) since another file may source and invoke them.
+
+### Related resources:
+
+* Help by adding links to BashFAQ, StackOverflow, man pages, POSIX, etc!
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