negative error status: gcc vs. cl

[Daniel Lungu]

:) "The value of status may be 0, EXIT_SUCCESS, EXIT_FAILURE, [CX] or any
:) other value"

:) but what you shouldn't do is expect the exit status in the shell to be
:) anything other than the least-significant byte of the value you passed:

:) "though only the least significant 8 bits (that is, status & 0377) shall
:) be available to a waiting parent process."

It is exactly what happens when compiling nerr.c with gcc:

-----unsigned-8b-exit-status-----
% nerr-gcc.exe; echo $?
254

sizeof (int) = 4 [B] on i686

:) So -2 comes back as 254.  Sounds like perfectly correct 2's complement
:) arithmetic to me!

Indeed, but same arithmetic should apply when exit status comes from a "cl
compiled .exe". It is not the case when compiling nerr.c with cl:

-----wrong-nil(!)-exit-status-----
% nerr-cl.exe; echo $?
0

$? cannot distinguish exit(0) from exit(-2) ... this is logical anarchy! One
cannot reliably test exit status of legacy windoze binaries.

:)    cheers, 
:)      DaveK

ksh :) yields the same Cygwin bug. Thanks for answers. Daniel.


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