Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.dal.ca!david
From: david@cs.dal.ca (David Trueman)
Newsgroups: gnu.utils.bug
Subject: Re: gawk's exit # statement doesn't work
Message-ID: <9002021547.AA15271@cs.dal.ca>
Date: 2 Feb 90 14:47:40 GMT
References: <9002011730.AA25762@ai.cs.utexas.edu>
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Distribution: gnu
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> Gawk exits with a zero `status' even with statements like "exit 1"
> 
> > ai% gawk -V '{exit 2}' < /dev/null
> > Gnu Awk (gawk) 2.11, patchlevel 1
> > ai% echo $status
> > 0
> > ai%
> 
> Jim Meyering      meyering@cs.utexas.edu

In this case, since no input records are read, the action is never
executed and thus the exit status is not set.  Giving the
program some input will set the exit status, as will the program:

BEGIN { exit 2 }

or

END { exit 2 }