please help me understand os.system() result

[Roman Suzi]

Under Linux I have very strange results for exit status info:

>>> os.system("exit 7")
1792
>>> os.system("python -c 'import sys;sys.exit(1)'")
256
>>> os.system("python -c 'import sys;sys.exit(2)'")
512

True for my RH 7.3 and 6.2, for Pythons 1.5.2, 2.1, 2.2.2.

Any ideas?

Sincerely yours, Roman A.Suzi
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