I was looking at the changes in the POSIX 2024 pdf. Historically
EXIT_FAILURE has been allowed to be any non-zero value. Gnulib made
sure that the value was 1 because on Tandem/NSK it is defined to -1.
This leads to issues since the exit status interpreted by 'xargs' is
255 which causes an early exit. Eric Blake reported this and now
EXIT_FAILURE may be any value 1-125 inclusive [1].
Can we relax this definition to allow for any POSIX 2024 compatible
value? I have attached a patch but not pushed it yet. I think it is
best to keep the system definitions as long as they don't cause
strange bugs like the Tandem/NSK case.
Collin
[1] https://www.austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1229&nbn=5
From e0a0660690e5dd15acb6d98e5e1da1e3909e0221 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Collin Funk <collin.fu...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2024 17:29:48 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] stdlib: Relax definition of EXIT_FAILURE.
* lib/stdlib.in.h (EXIT_FAILURE): Allow definitions in the range 1 to
125 inclusive according to POSIX 2024.
* tests/test-stdlib.c: Make use of #error.
(EXIT_FAILURE): Check for a POSIX 2024 compatible definition.
---
ChangeLog | 8 ++++++++
lib/stdlib.in.h | 2 +-
tests/test-stdlib.c | 9 ++++-----
3 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index bf82a188fc..70a71bfa95 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2024-06-22 Collin Funk <collin.fu...@gmail.com>
+
+ stdlib: Relax definition of EXIT_FAILURE.
+ * lib/stdlib.in.h (EXIT_FAILURE): Allow definitions in the range 1 to
+ 125 inclusive according to POSIX 2024.
+ * tests/test-stdlib.c: Make use of #error.
+ (EXIT_FAILURE): Check for a POSIX 2024 compatible definition.
+
2024-06-22 Bruno Haible <br...@clisp.org>
obstack-zprintf: Add more tests.
diff --git a/lib/stdlib.in.h b/lib/stdlib.in.h
index cfc69d0a50..6ab5274831 100644
--- a/lib/stdlib.in.h
+++ b/lib/stdlib.in.h
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ struct random_data
with proper operation of xargs. */
#ifndef EXIT_FAILURE
# define EXIT_FAILURE 1
-#elif EXIT_FAILURE != 1
+#elif EXIT_FAILURE < 1 || EXIT_FAILURE > 125
# undef EXIT_FAILURE
# define EXIT_FAILURE 1
#endif
diff --git a/tests/test-stdlib.c b/tests/test-stdlib.c
index cb6db8028f..d2e314b052 100644
--- a/tests/test-stdlib.c
+++ b/tests/test-stdlib.c
@@ -23,13 +23,12 @@
/* Check that EXIT_SUCCESS is 0, per POSIX. */
static int exitcode = EXIT_SUCCESS;
#if EXIT_SUCCESS
-"oops"
+# error EXIT_SUCCESS should equal 0.
#endif
-/* Check for GNU value (not guaranteed by POSIX, but is guaranteed by
- gnulib). */
-#if EXIT_FAILURE != 1
-"oops"
+/* Check that EXIT_FAILURE is defined according to POSIX 2024. */
+#if EXIT_FAILURE < 1 || EXIT_FAILURE > 125
+# error EXIT_FAILURE should be between 1 and 125 inclusive.
#endif
/* Check that NULL can be passed through varargs as a pointer type,
--
2.45.2
