From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Received: from euclid.skiles.gatech.edu (list@euclid.skiles.gatech.edu [130.207.146.50]) by melb.werple.net.au (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id VAA16590 for <mason@werple.mira.net.au>; Tue, 14 May 1996 21:40:48 +1000 (EST)
Received: (from list@localhost) by euclid.skiles.gatech.edu (8.7.3/8.7.3) id HAA10253; Tue, 14 May 1996 07:26:13 -0400 (EDT)
Resent-Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 07:26:13 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199605141125.NAA06542@hydra.ifh.de>
To: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu
Subject: Re: exit status of jobs 
In-reply-to: "venus!juno!harman@hclhprnd.hclt.com"'s message of "Tue, 14 May 1996 08:56:03 +0530."
             <9605140326.AA09367@juno.venus.hclt.com> 
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 13:25:43 +0200
From: Peter Stephenson <pws@ifh.de>
Resent-Message-ID: <"_5sIY1.0.7W2.Kt6cn"@euclid>
Resent-From: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu
X-Mailing-List: <zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu> archive/latest/1069
X-Loop: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu
Precedence: list
Resent-Sender: zsh-workers-request@math.gatech.edu

> 	In bash 1.13.5 (at least), the jobs command returns a
> meaningful exit status.  This feature has been used in various
> bash scripts to determine whether a job is running or not.

This does seem perfectly reasonable: at the moment you get the error
message `no such job' and return status 0 which is inconsistent.  I've
assumed typing `jobs' with no argument should not return an error if
there are no jobs (as in bash).

*** Src/builtin.c.jobs	Fri May 10 13:32:12 1996
--- Src/builtin.c	Tue May 14 13:22:26 1996
***************
*** 563,570 ****
  	/* The only type of argument allowed now is a job spec.  Check it. */
  	job = (*argv) ? getjob(*argv, name) : firstjob;
  	firstjob = -1;
! 	if (job == -1)
  	    break;
  	if (!(jobtab[job].stat & STAT_INUSE) ||
  	    (jobtab[job].stat & STAT_NOPRINT)) {
  	    zwarnnam(name, "no such job: %d", 0, job);
--- 563,572 ----
  	/* The only type of argument allowed now is a job spec.  Check it. */
  	job = (*argv) ? getjob(*argv, name) : firstjob;
  	firstjob = -1;
! 	if (job == -1) {
! 	    retval = 1;
  	    break;
+ 	}
  	if (!(jobtab[job].stat & STAT_INUSE) ||
  	    (jobtab[job].stat & STAT_NOPRINT)) {
  	    zwarnnam(name, "no such job: %d", 0, job);


-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@ifh.de>       Tel: +49 33762 77366
WWW:  http://www.ifh.de/~pws/       Fax: +49 33762 77330
Deutches Electronen-Synchrotron --- Institut fuer Hochenergiephysik Zeuthen
DESY-IfH, 15735 Zeuthen, Germany.