Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hou3c.UUCP 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