File: grep.info,  Node: Exit Status,  Next: grep Programs,  Prev: Environment Variables,  Up: Invoking

2.3 Exit Status
===============

Normally the exit status is 0 if a line is selected, 1 if no lines were
selected, and 2 if an error occurred.  However, if the ‘-q’ or ‘--quiet’
or ‘--silent’ option is used and a line is selected, the exit status is
0 even if an error occurred.  Other ‘grep’ implementations may exit with
status greater than 2 on error.