Created SC2242 (markdown)

Vidar Holen
2018-11-24 23:04:42 -08:00
parent f79accb59c
commit bd96ee0dfe

36
SC2242.md Normal file

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
## Can only exit with status 0-255. Other data should be written to stdout/stderr.
### Problematic code:
```sh
exit "Bad filename"
```
### Correct code:
```sh
echo "Bad filename" >&2
exit 1
```
### Rationale:
`exit` can only be used to signal success or failure (0 = success, 1-255 = failure). It can not be used to return string data, and it can not be used to print error messages.
String data should be written stdout, before an `exit 0` to exit with success.
Errors should instead be written to stderr, with an `exit 1` (or higher) to exit with failure:
```
if [ ! -f "$1" ]
then
echo "$1 is not a regular file" >&2
exit 1
fi
```
Note in particular that `exit -1` is equivalent to `exit 255`, but that `exit 1` is the more canonical way of expressing the first possible error code.
### Exceptions:
None