To be honest. I did not understand the explanation in system. So I tried myself to understand it. This lead me to a sample program in which I then finally used the division by 256, although you are right that it is clearly stated in the docs that a 8bits shift to the right has to be done to get the exit code.

Now I understand the explanation well. The example at the end with $? also shows that the signal id is the other part of the exit status.

My problem was that the explanation did not state explicitly that the return value of "system" is 16 bits, and that the lower 7 bits are the signal id which caused the process to die. With this bit representation in my mind I would not have needed to ask you.

Thank you for your help. And next time I will ask clearer what I exactly want to know and what part of the docs I don't understand.

In reply to Re^4: Process exit status by Dirk80
in thread Process exit status by Dirk80

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