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From: generous@dgis.daitc.mil (Curtis Generous)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: exit codes
Keywords: pick-a-number, any-number
Message-ID: <33@dgis.daitc.mil>
Date: 18 Aug 89 12:56:23 GMT
Organization: DTIC Special Projects Office (DTIC-SPO), Alexandria VA
Lines: 22

Has there ever been a consensus about what a `well-behaved` UN*X program
should return in both normal and error conditions.  Examples of what I mean:

	% mesg >& /dev/null; echo $status
	13

	% crypt junk < /tmp/f > /tmp/f2; echo $status
	-1

	...many others...

I got bit last night with one of those off-the-wall ones (sorry chris), and
can't help thinking that there has to be some guidelines to use on picking
exit codes, other than `exit(0) for normal termination, anything else you 
want otherwise`.

--curtis
-- 
Curtis C. Generous
DTIC Special Projects Office (DTIC-SPO)
ARPA: generous@daitc.mil
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