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octaveexit-code

Octave not returning exit code

Under Lubuntu 18.04 and Octave 4.2.2, this script

#!/usr/bin/octave

exit(1);

executed from the command line with

$ ./exitscript.m

always returns this output

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'octave::exit_exception'
panic: Aborted -- stopping myself...
attempting to save variables to 'octave-workspace'...
save to 'octave-workspace' complete
octave exited with signal 6

and prompting for exit code (right after executing the command)

$ echo $?

always returns 0, ignoring the value passed to the system.

Related bug report.

Solution

  • That looks like a bug in Octave 4.2. exit shouldn't crash. (Surprise!)

    Looks like it's been fixed in newer versions of Octave, starting with Octave 4.4.0. I think you need to just upgrade, here.

    Unfortunately, most Linux distros ship with quite old versions of Octave. To get a more recent Octave version, you can install a 4.4.x or 5.1.x Octave using Flatpak or build it from source.