Re: [Bug-ddrescue] exit codes

[Antonio Diaz Diaz]

Hello Thomas,

Thomas Boehm wrote:
> I'm trying to find informations about the exit codes ddrescue returns. I 
> couldn't find anything in the docs and after an extensive Google search. 
> It appears that ddrescue always returns 0, no matter whether the user 
> interrupts the process with Control+C or the CD/DVD gets ejected while 
> in progress or ...

I never thought about using the exit code of ddrescue to signal 
"successful completion" because ddrescue can be told to rescue only part 
of the failing drive, in which case a "successful completion" results in 
a logfile with non-tried blocks.

I'll document the exit codes in the next version of the manual, but 
meanwhile I copy them here as taken from main.cc in the source code:

    Return values: 0 for a normal exit, 1 for environmental problems
    (file not found, invalid flags, I/O errors, etc), 2 to indicate a
    corrupt or invalid input file, 3 for an internal consistency error
    (eg, bug) which caused ddrescue to panic.



> I wrote a little script to batch process a pile of CDs/DVDs and want to 
> delete the logfile upon successful completion and keep it if there is a 
> problem or ddrescue gets interrupted.
>
> Or is there another way to delete the logfile upon successful completion?

Currently not, but it can be implemented at least in two ways:

a) Adding an option instructing ddrescue to delete the logfile when all 
the blocks have been successfuly recovered.

b) Adding an option instructing ddrescuelog to delete a given logfile if 
all the blocks in that logfile have been successfuly recovered.


I prefer b) because it allows deleting logfiles independently of the 
rescue process.


Regards,
Antonio.