Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!decvax!ima!haddock!suitti
From: suitti@haddock.ima.isc.com (Stephen Uitti)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: exit codes (was: Identifier length?)
Message-ID: <12143@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Date: 23 Mar 89 17:09:41 GMT
References: <627@maxim.ERBE.SE> <1989Mar16.171213.21210@utzoo.uucp> <6161@bsu-cs.UUCP> <1989Mar17.175939.1226@utzoo.uucp> <6212@bsu-cs.UUCP> <12111@haddock.ima.isc.com> <6268@bsu-cs.UUCP> <9902@smoke.BRL.MIL> <6272@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: suitti@haddock.ima.isc.com (Stephen Uitti)
Organization: Interactive Systems, Boston
Lines: 21

->...most existing C programs exit with a code of 0, 1, or 2 and that
->0=success, nonzero=failure is a common convention):

What does "2" commonly mean?  "Other kind of error?"  I use "0"
and "1".  I don't use shell scripts much, since C is a much
better language (faster, more powerful, easier to support, etc.).
Generally, the exit code is irrelevant.  I use "0" & "1" mostly
to keep "make" happy.

->Scanning through C programming textbooks, which are geared towards a
->variety of implementations not all under UNIX, we consistently find
->exit(0) and exit(1) used for success and failure respectively.

->It doesn't matter that these existing programs are "nonportable", if
->that means (as it does in this case) "won't work under VAX/VMS".

What doesn't work?  Does the program not compile or die?  Does
VMS support (or not) exit codes for DCL or something?  Will this
be fixed if/when DEC provides POSIX support for VMS?

Stephen.