Re: [PATCH] maint: correct comments in test scripts

[Jim Meyering]

Ben Pfaff wrote:
> Jim Meyering <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> I'm encountering a lot of exit(0)/exit(1) uses that
>> trigger this new "syntax-check" rule, so I've taken
>> the time to automate most of the clean-up process.
>
> This replaces exit(0) by exit(EXIT_SUCCESS), which makes sense
> because POSIX says that EXIT_SUCCESS is defined as 0.  But does
> it always make sense to replace exit(1) by exit(EXIT_FAILURE)?
> POSIX does not say that EXIT_FAILURE is always 1, but it does say
> that some utilities are supposed to exit with exit status 1 in
> some cases (e.g. "grep" when no lines are selected), so wouldn't
> this lead to a POSIX violation in the most general case?

Yes.  That is why tools like sort define

    SORT_OUT_OF_ORDER = 1,

and use that where appropriate.

No claim that the above is an excuse not to think,
though I doubt you'll go wrong in practice in expecting
EXIT_FAILURE to be 1.