Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!dgis!generous 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 UUCP: {uunet,vrdxhq}!dgis!generous