Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!ogicse!hsdndev!cmcl2!kramden.acf.nyu.edu!brnstnd
From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Exit code 252
Message-ID: <18694:Mar2014:23:3591@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 20 Mar 91 14:23:35 GMT
References: <4987@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> <6794:Mar1812:09:2391@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <527@bria>
Organization: IR
Lines: 17

In article <527@bria> uunet!bria!mike writes:
> In an article, kramden.acf.nyu.edu!brnstnd (Dan Bernstein) writes:
> >[...] New users seem to notice this most often in Makefiles and
> >when a job exits in the background under csh; otherwise the exit code of
> >such programs generally isn't used.
> Ahem -- I beg your pardon.  The exit code of a *majority* of the programs
> on UNIX *are* used.  Otherwise ``||'', ``&&'', ``$?'' and ``if'' would be
> somewhat worthless, now wouldn't they? :-)

I said ``such programs,'' those being the programs that don't return a
meaningful exit code. Example: echo. Sure, echo is useful in Makefiles,
and you might occasionally run it in the background in csh; but I've
never seen anyone test its exit code in scripts. If it didn't exit(0),
new users would notice that fact in Makefiles or when a job exits in the
background, as I said.

---Dan