Re: [CentOS] Getting the return value of the last command run

On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 01:14, fred smith fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us wrote:

Yes, all commands return a value UNLESS it was written by one of the idi,... er, misguided programmers who thinks its ok to write (in C):

void main (void)        {        ...        exit();        }

because, of course, in C main() always returns SOMETHING.

I'm sure it's the same in a bash script, even if the script doesn't explicitly provide a return value I imagine the shell returns something anyway, it's just that it's meaningless when that happens.

I also learned in C that main should be an int. Now that I'm studying Java, main is always a void and nobody has been able to explain to me why.