Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!ur-tut!sunybcs!boulder!hao!ames!elroy!cit-vax!cit-vlsi!wen-king
From: wen-king@cit-vlsi.Caltech.Edu (Wen-King Su)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: exit(-1) does not work ???
Message-ID: <5262@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 21 Jan 88 19:03:21 GMT
References: <6935@brl-smoke.ARPA> <7208@ki4pv.uucp> <334@splut.UUCP> <7292@ki4pv.uucp> <555@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: wen-king@cit-vlsi.UUCP (Wen-King Su)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 34
Keywords: exit, zero

In article <555@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
>In article <7292@ki4pv.uucp>, tanner@ki4pv.uucp (Dr. T. Andrews) writes:
<Just to repeat an earlier point: exit(0) and exit(1) ***DO*** work in VMS.
>I think I was the one to start this exchange about exit() in C, and my
<original point was that exit(-1) *does not work in UNIX*.  I suggested
>sticking to 0 and 1 because they *do* work in UNIX *and* in VMS.

This seems a little strange to me so I decided to check it out.
Following is a script showing that exit(-1) DOES work in UNIX.
I am running it on a SUN and I am using csh.

    Script started on Thu Jan 21 10:19:36 1988
    % cat t.c
    main() { exit(-1); }
    % t
    % echo $status
    -1
    % t &
    [1] 5825
    % 
    [1]    Exit -1              t
    % ^D
    script done on Thu Jan 21 10:20:03 1988

I agree that it is a good idea to have 0 as the universal indicator of
success, but I believe application programmers should be free to use
other numbers to their own advantage and OS should provide them with
the maximum flexibility.  The issue of portability is something each
programmer has to decide for <arrg!!>self, but it is always useful for
those who had the experience to point out trouble spots and recommend
solutions.
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------*\
| Wen-King Su  wen-king@vlsi.caltech.edu  Caltech Corp of Cosmic Engineers |
\*------------------------------------------------------------------------*/