run_command: return exit code as positive value

As a general guideline, functions in git's code return zero to indicate
success and negative values to indicate failure. The run_command family of
functions followed this guideline. But there are actually two different
kinds of failure:

- failures of system calls;

- non-zero exit code of the program that was run.

Usually, a non-zero exit code of the program is a failure and means a
failure to the caller. Except that sometimes it does not. For example, the
exit code of merge programs (e.g. external merge drivers) conveys
information about how the merge failed, and not all exit calls are
actually failures.

Furthermore, the return value of run_command is sometimes used as exit
code by the caller.

This change arranges that the exit code of the program is returned as a
positive value, which can now be regarded as the "result" of the function.
System call failures continue to be reported as negative values.

Signed-off-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

7 files changed, 7 insertions, 19 deletions

diff --git a/builtin-merge.c b/builtin-merge.c
index af9adab30..96ecaf4e4 100644
--- a/builtin-merge.c
+++ b/builtin-merge.c
@@ -594,7 +594,7 @@ static int try_merge_strategy(const char *strategy, struct commit_list *common,
 		discard_cache();
 		if (read_cache() < 0)
 			die("failed to read the cache");
-		return -ret;
+		return ret;
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/builtin-receive-pack.c b/builtin-receive-pack.c
index 6ec1d056e..623590355 100644
--- a/builtin-receive-pack.c
+++ b/builtin-receive-pack.c
@@ -143,8 +143,8 @@ static int run_status(int code, const char *cmd_name)
 	case -ERR_RUN_COMMAND_WAITPID_NOEXIT:
 		return error("%s died strangely", cmd_name);
 	default:
-		error("%s exited with error code %d", cmd_name, -code);
-		return -code;
+		error("%s exited with error code %d", cmd_name, code);
+		return code;
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/convert.c b/convert.c
index 1816e977b..491e7141b 100644
--- a/convert.c
+++ b/convert.c
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ static int filter_buffer(int fd, void *data)
 
 	status = finish_command(&child_process);
 	if (status)
-		error("external filter %s failed %d", params->cmd, -status);
+		error("external filter %s failed %d", params->cmd, status);
 	return (write_err || status);
 }
 
diff --git a/git.c b/git.c
index 65ed733fd..d223eab62 100644
--- a/git.c
+++ b/git.c
@@ -418,9 +418,9 @@ static void execv_dashed_external(const char **argv)
 	 */
 	status = run_command_v_opt(argv, 0);
 	if (status != -ERR_RUN_COMMAND_EXEC) {
-		if (IS_RUN_COMMAND_ERR(status))
+		if (status < 0)
 			die("unable to run '%s'", argv[0]);
-		exit(-status);
+		exit(status);
 	}
 	errno = ENOENT; /* as if we called execvp */
 
diff --git a/ll-merge.c b/ll-merge.c
index a2c13c4c0..31c74578f 100644
--- a/ll-merge.c
+++ b/ll-merge.c
@@ -192,10 +192,6 @@ static int ll_ext_merge(const struct ll_merge_driver *fn,
 
 	args[2] = cmd.buf;
 	status = run_command_v_opt(args, 0);
-	if (status < -ERR_RUN_COMMAND_FORK)
-		; /* failure in run-command */
-	else
-		status = -status;
 	fd = open(temp[1], O_RDONLY);
 	if (fd < 0)
 		goto bad;
diff --git a/run-command.c b/run-command.c
index eb2efc330..a4e309eeb 100644
--- a/run-command.c
+++ b/run-command.c
@@ -241,14 +241,7 @@ static int wait_or_whine(pid_t pid)
 		if (!WIFEXITED(status))
 			return -ERR_RUN_COMMAND_WAITPID_NOEXIT;
 		code = WEXITSTATUS(status);
-		switch (code) {
-		case 127:
-			return -ERR_RUN_COMMAND_EXEC;
-		case 0:
-			return 0;
-		default:
-			return -code;
-		}
+		return code == 127 ? -ERR_RUN_COMMAND_EXEC : code;
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/run-command.h b/run-command.h
index e34550284..0211e1d47 100644
--- a/run-command.h
+++ b/run-command.h
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ enum {
 	ERR_RUN_COMMAND_WAITPID_SIGNAL,
 	ERR_RUN_COMMAND_WAITPID_NOEXIT,
 };
-#define IS_RUN_COMMAND_ERR(x) (-(x) >= ERR_RUN_COMMAND_FORK)
 
 struct child_process {
 	const char **argv;