&&
executa o comando que segue somente se o comando que o precede for bem-sucedido. ||
faz o oposto:
update-system-configuration || echo "Update failed" | mail -s "Help Me" admin@host
Documentação
De man bash
:
AND and OR lists are sequences of one of more pipelines separated by the && and || control operators, respectively. AND and OR lists are executed with left associativity. An AND list has the form
command1 && command2
command2 is executed if, and only if, command1 returns an exit status of zero.
An OR list has the form
command1 || command2
command2 is executed if and only if command1 returns a non-zero exit status. The return status of AND and OR lists is the exit status of the last command executed in the list.