git bisect code 125 - "WFT?"

From: Piotr Krukowiecki <piotr.krukowiecki@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 16, 2011, 20:44 UTC
Message-ID: <AANLkTikZ3Po-YdhO-qCn5usVkt4J196eFF6YdbAeMG_X@mail.gmail.com>

Hi,

in git bisect exit code 1-124 and 126-127 means "source is bad" (0 means "ok", 125 means "can't be tested" and anything other is "stop").

My first reaction was "WTF" - you have a special value in the middle of a range??

It got a bit clearer after reading the original patch[1] and man bash. It seems this value is last "free" value for the user to use, at least in bash - values above 125 may be used by the shell.

Bash uses code 126 if command is not executable, and 127 if command is not found.

I think it would be better to use 126 and 127 as either "can't be tested" or "stop" (125 should be left as is):

   * It would not leave a WTF gap in the "bad" range

   * If you get "command not executable" or "command not found" it's more
     probable something is broken than the code is bad, and you should fix
     your script

Opinions? Would it be possible to change the meaning of the codes now (in 1.8.0)?

[1] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/62390

-- 
Piotr Krukowiecki