The following issue has been SUBMITTED. ====================================================================== https://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1594 ====================================================================== Reported By: geoffclare Assigned To: ====================================================================== Project: 1003.1(2016/18)/Issue7+TC2 Issue ID: 1594 Category: Shell and Utilities Type: Error Severity: Comment Priority: normal Status: New Name: Geoff Clare Organization: The Open Group User Reference: Section: command, env, nice, nohup, time, xargs Page Number: 2598 and more Line Number: 84368 and more Interp Status: --- Final Accepted Text: ====================================================================== Date Submitted: 2022-07-29 11:06 UTC Last Modified: 2022-07-29 11:06 UTC ====================================================================== Summary: App usage about exit code 127 is wrong Description: The command, env, nice, nohup, time, and xargs utilities all have a paragraph in APPLICATION USAGE that begins:<blockquote>The <i>command</i>, <i>env</i>, <i>nice</i>, <i>nohup</i>, <i>time</i>, and <i>xargs</i> utilities have been specified to use exit code 127 if an error occurs so that applications can distinguish ``failure to find a utility'' from ``invoked utility exited with an error indication''.</blockquote> This statement is only true for the command and nohup utilities where exit status 127 is described as:<blockquote>An error occurred in the <i>command</i> utility or the utility specified by <i>command_name</i> could not be found.</blockquote>(and likewise for nohup).
For all of the others, the exit status when an error occurs in the utility itself is specified as 1-125. Note that the suggested new text matches that proposed for the new timeout utility in bug 1586 https://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1586#c5920. If it is changed here it will need to be changed there as well. Desired Action: On page 2598 line 84368 section command, and page 2694 line 87948 section env, and page 3028 line 100764 section nice, and page 3041 line 101203 section nohup, and page 3299 line 111054 section time, and page 3450 line 116526 section xargs, change:<blockquote>if an error occurs</blockquote>to:<blockquote>if a utility to be invoked cannot be found</blockquote> On page 2598 line 84370 section command, and page 3041 line 101205 section nohup, after:<blockquote>... ``invoked utility exited with an error indication''.</blockquote>add:<blockquote>However, the <i>command</i> and <i>nohup</i> utilities also use exit code 127 when an error occurs in those utilities, which means exit code 127 is not universally a ``not found'' indicator.</blockquote> ====================================================================== Issue History Date Modified Username Field Change ====================================================================== 2022-07-29 11:06 geoffclare New Issue 2022-07-29 11:06 geoffclare Name => Geoff Clare 2022-07-29 11:06 geoffclare Organization => The Open Group 2022-07-29 11:06 geoffclare Section => command, env, nice, nohup, time, xargs 2022-07-29 11:06 geoffclare Page Number => 2598 and more 2022-07-29 11:06 geoffclare Line Number => 84368 and more 2022-07-29 11:06 geoffclare Interp Status => --- ======================================================================