Git status exit status ?

1 $ git status
2 # On branch master
3 nothing to commit (working directory clean)
4 $ echo $?
5 1

Shouldn’t a successful git status in a git repository return a status code of 0 ? Doing it in a random folder returns a sensible value:

1 $ git status
2 fatal: Not a git repository
3 Failed to find a valid git directory.
4 $ echo $?
5 128

Can anybody shed some light on this ?

I found Possible bug in ‘git status’ exit code is 1 instead of 0. What is the rational for this ? It goes against everything Unix ?!?

I am François Beausoleil, a Ruby on Rails coder. During the day, I work on AdGear, an ad distribution platform for publishers. At night, I am interested many things. Read my biography.

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