---
id: exitstatus
version: "2.7.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# exitstatus — POSIX exit status codes

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 293.7K/mo

## What it is and what it does

exitstatus wraps POSIX standard exit codes in a typed IntEnum, making them portable and expressive across platforms. Python's os module provides some Unix-specific exit codes but lacks portability and the generic failure case; exitstatus fills that gap with clean, standard definitions you can pass directly to sys.exit().

The package is minimal and dependency-free, designed for scripts and applications that need to signal completion status to their operating environment. It supports Python 3.10 through 3.14 and is type-checked with mypy, making it suitable for both simple CLI tools and larger applications that care about exit semantics.

Use it for:

- Exit a CLI tool with a standard POSIX code to signal success or specific failure modes to the shell.
- Write cross-platform Python scripts that use portable exit codes instead of platform-specific constants.
- Build type-safe application exit logic where exit codes are defined as named enum members rather than magic integers.
- Integrate exit status handling into test runners or deployment scripts that depend on exit codes.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides portable, type-safe POSIX exit status code definitions as an IntEnum for use in Python scripts and applications.

Yes. If you write command-line tools or scripts that need to signal exit status to the operating system, this package eliminates the friction of remembering or looking up POSIX codes. It has no dependencies, is actively maintained, carries a permissive license, and supports current Python versions. The cost of adoption is negligible.

## Install

pip install exitstatus
uv add exitstatus
poetry add exitstatus

## Installing exitstatus

Before you install: Low friction installation with no runtime dependencies. Actively maintained as of 2026-01-01, with recent commits and Production/Stable status.

License in practice: MIT license (permissive) allows use in commercial and open-source projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

import sys
from exitstatus import ExitStatus

sys.exit(ExitStatus.success)

Requires Python 3.10 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package covers all standard POSIX exit codes or a subset of them.
- What specific exit codes are available beyond success (e.g., failure, usage error, etc.).

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 293.7K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

POSIX exit codes, exit status constants, portable exit codes, sys.exit codes, exit code enum, standard exit statuses, cross-platform exit codes, cli-tools, posix-standard

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