The exit builtin command

exit [N]

The exit command terminates the current shell (or script).

If N is given, the return code to the parent process is set to N. If not, the returned status the the status of the most recently executed command (i.e. $?).

A trap on EXIT is executed before the shell exits, except the executed exit command is part of an already running trap.

There are no options.

Naturally, you can't ask for the exit status from within the shell that executed the exit command, because the shell exits.

exit 3

• if N is specified, but its value is not between 0 and 255 inclusively, the exit status is undefined.

• The trap builtin command
• The exit status