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Re: exit 256 could lead to catastrophic failures of missile systems, etc


From: Chet Ramey
Subject: Re: exit 256 could lead to catastrophic failures of missile systems, etc.
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 11:37:17 -0500

> [Original title: "exit beyond 0-255 not mentioned"], now switched for
> more eye-catching one.
> 
> $ help exit
> exit: exit [n]
>     Exit the shell with a status of N.  If N is omitted, the exit status
>     is that of the last command executed.
> 
> I thought you said n, not N.

It's meta-notation.  Most or all of the `help' descriptions use upper
case to highlight arguments.

> $ man bash
>        exit [n]
>               Cause the shell to exit with a status of n.   If  n
>               is  omitted,  the  exit  status is that of the last
>               command executed.
> 
> That's more like it, but wait,
> 
> $ exit 555
> exit
> 
> Process shell<1> exited abnormally with code 43
> 
> Well, I think there's some explaining to do on the man page about why
> one can't exit with their favourite number in some cases.

Does the man page always have to include everything from everywhere
else in the manual?  waitpid(2) and its siblings return only eight
bits of exit status.

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
( ``Discere est Dolere'' -- chet)

Chet Ramey, CWRU    chet@po.CWRU.Edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/



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