Meaning of exit status 1 returned by linux command

Question

What is meaning of exit status 1 returned by linux command? Like 127 exit status indicates "command not found".

I have visited http://linux.die.net/abs-guide/exitcodes.html page, does it mean exit status 1 does not have particular special meaning?

Bergman

The ABS link is confused. These exit codes are not "reserved" and the table is a happy drunk mixture of Bash-internal usage, general Unix conventions, and the author's loud opinion. – Hewett

See also now #36531196 – Hewett

Answer 1

The only general convention is that a zero exit status signifies success, whereas any non-zero exit status is a failure. Different non-zero values may indicate the reason for the exit status, usually documented for the particular program.

C's <stdlib.h> include file defines two constants:

1. EXIT_FAILURE (1)
2. EXIT_SUCCESS (0)

"man-pages(7)" suggests to document the meaning of the exit status in section EXIT STATUS.

Many -- but certainly not all -- command-line tools return exit code 1 for syntax error, i.e. you had too few arguments or an invalid option.

Many -- but, alas, not all -- command-line tools have a manual page. By convention, it should document the exit codes of the program, but many do not.

Hewett

Answer 2

You can see the value of the exit status using man.

Giving an example below:

man ls

Now search for string exit

Adding screen shot below:

Omdurman

As tripleee posted not all command's man page documented exit codes. I am facing exit status related problem for command msgfmt, it's man page does not documented about exit codes. – Bergman

msgfmt.c seems to use the generic EXIT_FAILURE in basically every error situation. There would be an error message telling you what went wrong, though. – Hewett

Answer 3

Exit Code 1 means that a container terminated, typically due to an application error or an invalid reference. A non-zero (1-255) exit status indicates failure.

For example, if a Java library is running , and the library throws a compiler error, the container might terminate with Exit Code 1.

A command which exits with a zero (0) exit status means it succeeded.

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