Call Python From PHP And Get Return Code

Question

I am calling a python script from PHP.

The python program has to return some value according to the arguments passed to it.

Here is a sample python program,

Answer 1

That is correct use of exit(). See also: http://docs.python.org/library/sys.html

Answer 2

In PHP, you can execute a command and obtain the return code using exec.

The manual for exec says the third parameter is a variable in which the return code will be stored, for example

exec('python blibble.py', $output, $ret_code);

$ret_code will be the shell return code, and $output is an array of the lines of text printed to std. output.

This does appear to be an appropriate use for a return code from what you described, i.e. 0 indicating success, and >0 being codes for various types of errors.