From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Feb 14 13:53:44 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 419C11065670 for ; Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:53:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from roberthuff@rcn.com) Received: from smtp02.lnh.mail.rcn.net (smtp02.lnh.mail.rcn.net [207.172.157.102]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EBA028FC12 for ; Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:53:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from roberthuff@rcn.com) Received: from mr08.lnh.mail.rcn.net ([207.172.157.28]) by smtp02.lnh.mail.rcn.net with ESMTP; 14 Feb 2009 08:53:43 -0500 Received: from smtp01.lnh.mail.rcn.net (smtp01.lnh.mail.rcn.net [207.172.4.11]) by mr08.lnh.mail.rcn.net (MOS 3.10.4-GA) with ESMTP id KQH85611; Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:53:42 -0500 (EST) Received: from 209-6-22-188.c3-0.smr-ubr1.sbo-smr.ma.cable.rcn.com (HELO jerusalem.litteratus.org.litteratus.org) ([209.6.22.188]) by smtp01.lnh.mail.rcn.net with ESMTP; 14 Feb 2009 08:53:43 -0500 From: Robert Huff MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <18838.52454.185642.297737@jerusalem.litteratus.org> Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:53:42 -0500 To: questions@freebsd.org X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.5 (beta28) "fuki" XEmacs Lucid X-Junkmail-Whitelist: YES (by domain whitelist at mr08.lnh.mail.rcn.net) Cc: Subject: OT: sed + exit status X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:53:44 -0000 According to the man page: EXIT STATUS The sed utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. However, what constitutes "success" is undefined. Consider the sed command s/FOO/bar/ . Is sed "successful" is there are no instances of FOO? Or only if there is at least one instance of FOO and it is successfully replaced by bar? Respectfully, Robert Huff