why does close() fail miserably on popen with exit code -1 ?!

[Atanas Banov]

my gripe is about exit with MINUS ONE, not +1. see my post again.

yes, i know one cannot return -1 in unix (since returned value is
exitcode % 256 * 256), and no, i am not interested in unix behavior.

Rene Pijlman wrote:
> Atanas Banov:
> >i ran onto this weirdness today: seems like close() on popen-ed
> >(pseudo)file fails miserably with exception instead of returning exit
> >code, when said exit code is -1.
>
> Not here.
>
> Python 2.4.2 (#67, Sep 28 2005, 12:41:11) [MSC v.1310 32 bit (Intel)]
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> >>> import os
> >>> print os.popen('exit 1').close()
> 1