Hi,
i tried execute script

declare @r int
exec @r=master..xp_cmdshell 'dir c:\blabla.txt'
select @r as 'RESULT'

on SQL7 SP4 (WinNT4), SQL2000(W2000) and SQL2000 SP3 (W2003) but i got different result.

There was result 2 for SQL7 and result 1 for SQL2000.

xp_cmdshell would return only 0(success) and 1(failure). But what does it mean result 2 in case SQL7?

Is there any bug in SQL7?

Thank you for your answer.

Nope, I get 2


SQL 2k, WIN Serv 2k....

If you're looking for return codes and are trying to get it consistent regardless of the platform, try to use a temp table rather than a variable:

insert #tmp exec master.dbo.xp_cmdshell '...'

Then query the table for the result. But since SP3 is well established by now I'd recommend to pick a different method of accessing File System objects. You can use WMI interface for it via sp_OAxxx extended stored procedures.

They are kind of sneaky little beggars, and you have to read between the lines to discover just how sneaky they really are. If you check the destructions for xp_cmdshell very carefully, you'll see a one line comment at the top that reads:The value returned by xp_cmdshell is actually the final executable return code (ERRORLEVEL) returned to the command interpreter.

-PatP