How to test if the exit code of a command equals a given value in line? I’m looking for an equivalent to the following without the need to run the command first and retrieve $?:

diff a.txt b.txt
if [ $? = 2 ]; then
  echo diff failed
  exit 2
fi

This is different from the following questions because this question asks about checking exit code equal to a specific value rather than being zero or not:

• Bash check return code of a command inline
• Bash conditional based on exit code of command