Is there a convenient way to translate it back?

In short (but not entirely correct), it's 1536 >> 8, i.e. shift right the return value by 8 bits, or divide by 256. For the details, see system.

In reply to Re^3: How to get the exit status and the output of the command launched in perl by almut
in thread How to get the exit status and the output of the command launched in perl by sunshine_august

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