Merged from emacs--devo--0

[gnu-emacs] / admin / notes / exit-value

diff --git a/admin/notes/exit-value b/admin/notes/exit-value
index 2eb598bf495cf34494dda800a235bef09c499b32..e59bb614b9beb2055e9d30db8d2e8b4ed0903514 100644 (file)
--- a/admin/notes/exit-value
+++ b/admin/notes/exit-value
@@ -21,3 +21,15 @@ value requirements outlined in the first paragraph!  That is the job of the
    #endif
 
 Values aside from EXIT_SUCCESS and EXIT_FAILURE are tricky.
+
+
+
+ttn 2004-05-12
+
+Values aside from EXIT_SUCCESS and EXIT_FAILURE can be used to indicate
+finer gradations of failure.  If this is the only information available
+to the caller, clamping such values to EXIT_FAILURE loses information.
+If there are other ways to indicate the problem to the caller (such as
+a message to stderr) it may be ok to clamp.  In all cases, it is the
+relationship between the program and its caller that must be examined.
+[Insert ZAMM quote here.]