Different exit codes for different errors

[na--]

Currently k6 has only a few exit codes we specifically set - 98 and 99:

• k6 run with a failed threshold will return 99 (code)
• k6 cloud will fail with 98 if it couldn't get the test progress for some reason (I think) like network failure and with 99 if the test run itself failed (code)

k6 will otherwise exit with 0 if there were no errors or with 255 for anything else that fails in a controlled manner, i.e. anything that's not a panic or OOM (code).

(Go panics could also make k6 exit with a few different exit codes, though we've hopefully mostly eliminated them in k6, this is the only one we've recently seen. Skimming this file, it seems like most of the time exit(2) should be called, but technically it's also possible to have exit(4) and exit(5) when panicking, even if unlikely...)

This issue is a proposition that different types of errors should cause k6 to exit with different error codes. We should reserve a range and define, document and distinguish between errors - config validation errors, script errors in the init phase, script errors in the setup or teardown phases, crossed script errors threshold (will write another issue about that), etc. When we've defined a range for k6 system exit codes, we can also define a range for user error codes and allow users to specify them in the thresholds configurations, as requested in this issue.

These enhancements could be very useful when using k6 in a CI environment.

[oleiade]

We believe this has been addressed, and the team agreed to close it. k6 now have specific exit codes, and if more were necessary, please feel free to open specific issues accordingly 🙇🏻