Meaning of exit status 1 returned by linux command

user2664054 picture user2664054 · Jan 7, 2014 · Viewed 119.4k times · Source

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?

Answer

tripleee picture tripleee · Jan 7, 2014

The only general convention is that a zero exit status signifies success, whereas any non-zero exit status is a failure.

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.