Hi, I'm attaching to this mail an old proposal to clarify the exit status description, included in the debian package: https://bugs.debian.org/446854
Regards, Santiago
From 2432287712e802ce821e3158fb4f40a1a7b8b436 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Santiago=20Ruano=20Rinc=C3=B3n?= <santi...@debian.org> Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2014 11:19:56 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Simplify EXIT STATUS information * doc/grep.in.1, doc/grep.texi: clarify information regarding exit status. "A. Costa" <agco...@gis.net> wrote the original patch. See: https://bugs.debian.org/446854 --- doc/grep.in.1 | 16 ++++------------ doc/grep.texi | 14 ++++---------- 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/grep.in.1 b/doc/grep.in.1 index 00d030a..44da7e9 100644 --- a/doc/grep.in.1 +++ b/doc/grep.in.1 @@ -1143,23 +1143,15 @@ when is not set. . .SH "EXIT STATUS" -Normally, the exit status is 0 if selected lines are found and 1 otherwise. -But the exit status is 2 if an error occurred, unless the +The exit status is 0 if selected lines are found, and 1 if not found. +If an error occurred (and .B \-q or .B \-\^\-quiet or .B \-\^\-silent -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. +are not used) the exit status is 2. (Note: POSIX error +handling code should check for '2' or greater.) . .SH COPYRIGHT Copyright 1998-2000, 2002, 2005-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc. diff --git a/doc/grep.texi b/doc/grep.texi index d7adcad..46361ce 100644 --- a/doc/grep.texi +++ b/doc/grep.texi @@ -1025,16 +1025,10 @@ and only when @env{POSIXLY_CORRECT} is not set. @cindex exit status @cindex return status -Normally, the exit status is 0 if selected lines are found and 1 otherwise. -But the exit status is 2 if an error occurred, unless the @option{-q} or -@option{--quiet} or @option{--silent} option is used and a selected line -is found. -Note, however, that POSIX only mandates, -for programs such as @command{grep}, @command{cmp}, and @command{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. +The exit status is 0 if selected lines are found, and 1 if not found. If +an error occurred (and @option{-q} or @option{--quiet} or +@option{--silent} are not used) the exit status is 2. (Note: POSIX error +handling code should check for '2' or greater. @node grep Programs -- 2.1.0
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