CMD.EXE ending with RC 255

[Neil Pike]

Any ideas on this one? Seeing it with command files running under a scheduler
on NT4 - not sure whether it happens on the W2K boxes or higher.

Periodically a batch file (xxxx.cmd) will just fail with a return code 255.
It's usually a totally innocuous o/s command like "md" or "del" or something.
It doesn't return control to the script with an errorlevel, the whole script
just suddenly fails.

The scheduling software (Argent) just picks it up as if we'd issued an exit
with 255 - and the output (because it captures just stdout and stdin) shows the
last command that was running when it "failed", which is, say, a "del" command,
and we can see it hasn't reached the "if errorlevel 1" that follows it.

The scheduling software guys say it can't be them, and all they're doing is
returning what the "app" returns to them.

Anyone come across anything like this before? Could it be some sort of
resource problem affecting cmd.exe?

Neil Pike. Protech Computing Ltd

 

[Glenn L]

Not sure what might be happening here, but if you feed the return code
through err.exe, you get the following;

C:\Tools>err.exe ff
# for hex 0xff / decimal 255 :
BTH_ERROR_UNSPECIFIED bthdef.h
RESERVE_QUEUE_OVERFLOW bugcodes.h
# An attempt was made to insert an entry in a reserve queue
# that was already full.
LLC_STATUS_PENDING dlcapi.h
NRC_PENDING nb30.h
# /* asynchronous command is not yet finished */
SQL_255_severity_16 sql_err
# Pseudocolumns are not allowed in the column list of a PIVOT
# operator.
ERROR_EA_LIST_INCONSISTENT winerror.h
# The extended attributes are inconsistent.
# 6 matches found for "ff"

Perhaps this aditional info will help in your troubleshooting.

 

[Neil Pike]

none of those seem to make any sense...

But thanks for the reply!

Not sure what might be happening here, but if you feed the return code
through err.exe, you get the following;

C:\Tools>err.exe ff
# for hex 0xff / decimal 255 :
BTH_ERROR_UNSPECIFIED bthdef.h
RESERVE_QUEUE_OVERFLOW bugcodes.h
# An attempt was made to insert an entry in a reserve queue
# that was already full.
LLC_STATUS_PENDING dlcapi.h
NRC_PENDING nb30.h
# /* asynchronous command is not yet finished */
SQL_255_severity_16 sql_err
# Pseudocolumns are not allowed in the column list of a PIVOT
# operator.
ERROR_EA_LIST_INCONSISTENT winerror.h
# The extended attributes are inconsistent.
# 6 matches found for "ff"

Perhaps this aditional info will help in your troubleshooting.

Neil Pike. Protech Computing Ltd