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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!ka
From: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.unix
Subject: Re: Telling shell command errors from command exit statuses.
Message-ID: <724@hou3c.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Aug-84 21:04:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou3c.724
Posted: Fri Aug  3 21:04:54 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Aug-84 03:41:14 EDT
References: <8389@watmath.UUCP>, <1153@ihuxr.UUCP> <8483@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 6

The shell has (presumably) already forked off a child process by the
time it discovers that a command does not exist.  Therefore, the only
way it *can* indicate that the command does not exist is to return
a nonzero exit status.  Perhaps a special exit status should be reserved
for "command does not exist".
				Kenneth Almquist