system(3) return code

[Jan Schaumann <jschauma%netmeister.org@localhost>]

Hi,

system(3) has some awkward phrasing for the case where
the execution of the shell fails:

"If execution of the shell fails, system() returns the
termination status for a program that terminates with
a call of exit(127)."

The fact that the child process after the failed
execve(2) explicitly calls _exit(127) is not really
useful for the programmer.

I'd like to change that to

"If execution of the shell fails, system() returns an
exit status of 127."

Alternatively, we could use the wording from FreeBSD /
macOS:

"A return value of 127 means the execution of the
shell failed."

Opinions?

-Jan