https://ahmedtabish.me The personal site and writing of Ahmed Tabish, a software engineer working on developer tools, systems, and open source. en https://ahmedtabish.me/blog/exit-codes https://ahmedtabish.me/blog/exit-codes Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:49:11 GMT Why does a dead program leave behind a number? The answer starts in early Unix, travels through processes, shells, signals, and surprisingly elegant design decisions - and eventually lands in the software we run today. Notes