[schoen]

Instead of

somecommand

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "it failed"; fi

the parent commenter presumably wants to see

if ! somecommand; then echo "it failed"; fi

[viraptor]

Or:

    somecommand || echo "it failed"

if it's just one statement. There are some cases where it just looks more natural. For example:

    start_service || log "already started"