On 8/7/11 6:03 PM, Linda Walsh wrote:
> Bash itself is inconsistent in that it accepts exit values the same as
> every other
> program, but limits return values to a particular subset.
Bash accepts any value you want to give to `return' and strips it to
8 bits, as the standard allows. Read the error message closely: it says
`invalid option'. return doesn't accept any options, even ones that
might possibly be interpreted as negative status values -- which the
standard doesn't allow anyway. As Eric Blake showed, `return -- -1' works
just fine, and sets $? to 255. If you don't want to type the three extra
characters, use the $(( ... )) idiom I posted earlier.
Chet
--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU [email protected] http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/
