set -e aborts a script at a validation step that concerns something else

set -e aborts a script at a validation step that concerns something else

reads as

The install script ran and the config file is in place. Conclusion drawn: the change is active.

actually

A validation step covering the whole configuration failed on an unrelated block that needed an environment variable the script did not load. Under set -e the script exited before the reload.

blind because

The steps before the failure completed and left visible artifacts. Partial success looks like success when only the artifacts are inspected.

the check

Ask the running service what it loaded, not the filesystem what it holds. For Caddy: the admin API's live config.

cost of missing

The config is correct on disk and absent from the process, an inconsistency that survives inspection of either side alone.

generalises to

Any pipeline where a global check gates a local change.