Hands-On System Programming with Go

Sending exit codes

Exit codes are the way in which a process notifies its parent about its status after terminating. In order to return any exit status from the current process, there is one function that does the job in a straightforward way: os.Exit.

This function takes one argument, that is, an integer, and represents the exit code that will be returned to the parent process. This can be verified using a simple program, as shown in the following code:

package mainimport (   "fmt"    "os")func main() {    fmt.Println("Hello, playground")    os.Exit(1)}

The full example is available at https://play.golang.org/p/-6GIY7EaVD_V.

The exit code, 0, is used when the application is executed successfully. Any other exit code symbolizes some type of error that ...