[Help-bash] behavior of -o pipefail

[Christof Warlich]

Hi,

I'm a bit surprised w.r.t. the implemented (and documented) behavior of 
-o pipefail:

Why is the last instead of the first error code in a pipe returned? Example:

$ bash -o pipefail -c '(exit 42) | (exit 43) | (exit 0)'; echo $?
43

IMHO, returning the first error code (i.e. 42 in the previous example) 
would be much more intuitive and useful, as errors in subsequent 
pipeline steps are most likely just only due to errors in previous 
steps. But maybe I'm missing an important point and there is (and / or 
was) a good reason that matters are as they are?

Cheers,

Chris

P.S.: I know that the address@hidden allows compehensive access 
to all exit codes of a pipe, so admittedly, my question may only be 
considered as a matter of aesthetics.