Varying non-zero exit codes

[ciaranmcnulty]

It would be useful to distinguish in scripts between an extension not being available (e.g. I typo'd the name), and something like a compiler error.

Could PIE return different non-zero status codes for the different categories of error?

[asgrim]

@ciaranmcnulty what kind of different categories were you imagining here please? do you have some examples?

[asgrim]

@ciaranmcnulty Hi again, any feedback here on what you were thinking here please?

[theofidry]

@asgrim I think this is more useful for instrumentation.

You worked on having meaningful error messages and understandable output, so upon failure it should be clear to the user what the problem is and what to do. During instrumentation however, what you will do depend on what is the failure, and without exit codes, you are left with interpreting the output which is fragile and prone to change.

On top of my head, a list of useful exit codes:

• the package was not found – typo/incorrect name
• the package could not be downloaded (rate limit, network cut, etc.) – can be retried
• compilation error – invalid environment or bug in the package

I'm not familiar with the internal steps neither am I working on such instrumentation at the moment so it is hard for me to come up with more defined use cases.

[asgrim]

Thanks. I'll hopefully look into this soon :)