From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:35:15 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] tests: make test_must_fail more verbose
Message-ID: <20100831193515.GV2315@burratino>
In-Reply-To: <20100831180618.GB15020@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Jeff King wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:10:55PM -0500, Jonathan Nieder wrote:

>> Can the exit status (e.g. from a shell function) be negative?
>
> I don't believe so. Both bash and dash complain about "return -1" (and
> POSIX says the number must be "an unsigned decimal integer").

Thanks for checking; missed that.  It is clearer in POSIX that the
exit status from an external command will be truncated to an 8-bit
unsigned integer, which as you say is the most important thing.