Re: Exit statuses and errors messages (was Re: grep . /; echo $?)

[Julian Foad]

Charles Levert wrote:
> * On Tuesday 2005-11-08 at 20:40:12 -0500, Charles Levert wrote:
>
> >      However, encouraging
> >      users to use the "test $? -gt 1" (or
> >      "test $? -ge 2") logic might be a good
> >      thing to do for portability in any case,
> >      as this is all that POSIX mandates (for
> >      grep, cmp, diff, and possibly others).
> >
> >      Should this be added to the docs?

Yes.  Good idea.  +1 on this patch.

- Julian


[...]
>  option is used and a selected line is found.
> +Note, however, that \s-1POSIX\s0 only mandates, for programs such as
> +.BR grep ,
> +.BR cmp ,
> +and
> +.BR diff ,
> +that the exit status in case of error be greater than 1;
> +it is therefore advisable, for the sake of portability,
> +to use logic that tests for this general condition
> +instead of strict equality with 2.
>  .SH BUGS
[...]