#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $raw_ret;

print "'true':\n";
`true`;
$raw_ret = $?;

printf("0x%08X\n", $raw_ret);
print $raw_ret; print "\n";
print $raw_ret >> 8; print "\n";
print (($raw_ret >> 8) & 0xFF); print "\n";
print "\n";

print "'false':\n";
`false`;
$raw_ret = $?;

printf("0x%08X\n", $raw_ret);
print $raw_ret; print "\n";
print $raw_ret >> 8; print "\n";
print (($raw_ret >> 8) & 0xFF); print "\n";
print "\n";

print "'nosuchprogramname':\n";
`nosuchprogramname`;
$raw_ret = $?;

printf("0x%08X\n", $raw_ret);
print $raw_ret; print "\n";
print $raw_ret >> 8; print "\n";
print (($raw_ret >> 8) & 0xFF); print "\n";
print "\n";

##</code><code>##

[frink@truth ~/code/perl]$./ret-code.pl 
'true':
0x00000000
0
0
0

'false':
0x00000100
256
1
1

'nosuchprogramname':
Can't exec "nosuchprogramname": No such file or directory at ./ret-code.pl line 26.
0xFFFFFFFF
-1
16777215
255