rcp exit codes

[Mike Ingram_1]

hi All,

I have a script that rcp's files to another server, and I am checking if the return code is 0 or not, to determine success.
I am getting a few failures, and would like to know what the problem is, so thought I'd expand the script and have different messages for different return codes.

Can anyone tell me what non-zero return codes I could expect and what they mean?
So far, all I have found is that a non-zero return code is a failure!

Thanks.

[Rajeev Shukla · Accepted solution]

You would have only 2 return codes
0=success
1=failure

[Bill Hassell]

The problem (like return codes for remsh) is that the return code does NOT verify the success of a file transfer! It only signals whether a connection was made succesfully. So an error will be returned if the hostname is not found or the host refuses the connection. Otherwise, rcp is always successful.

Now when you look at all the possibilites for file transfer problems, you can understand that a single error code is not appropriate. For instance, you rcp a directory and half the files fail to transfer because the target location is full. Would the error code be 0.50? Or what do you return if some of the source files are not readable? and so on..

SO you have to process the text returned by rcp, or better yet, run remsh to look in the target directory to see if all is well.

[Mike Ingram_1]

Thanks guys.

I suspected as much, although it's not was I was hoping to hear!

Cheers.