Console App Exit Codes

Console apps can return exit codes to provide a way to show the app has successfully run. Here we will go through an example of creating an exe that returns an exit code.

First, create a new C# console app:

Now, to the main method, we will add:

 static void Main(string[] args)
 {
    Environment.ExitCode = 5;
 }

The Environment.ExitCode will set the exit code value.

To get the output, we will create a new bat file like below:

@echo off
start /wait Carl.ExitCodes.exe
echo %ERRORLEVEL%

Note the %ERRORLEVEL% will read the returned exit code.

Run the app. You will see the exit code of 5 returned:

There is another way to set the exit code. You can set the main method to return an integer and set that integer value:

 static int Main(string[] args)
 {
    return 6;
 }

Output:

Finally, make use of Enum to hold and return the error:

        enum ExitCode : int
        {
            Success = 0,
            Error = 1
        }

        static int Main(string[] args)
        {
            return (int)ExitCode.Success;
        }

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Carl de Souza Enterprise Architect at Microsoft · AI Technology Expert