Well, otherwise `if grep "line" $file; then` wouldn't work, which in my opinion is the primary use case for grep in scripts.

I'd still prefer a `grep <args> || true` over not having `set -e` for the whole file.

You can `set +e` before and `set -e` after every such command. I indent those commands to make it look like a block and to make sure setting errexit again isn’t forgotten.

But you probably still want an error if the input file does not exist. To handle grep correctly in a robust manner requires many lines of boilerplate, set +e, storing $?, set -e, distinguishing exit values 0, 1, and 2.