indeed it does both:

if php; then echo yes; fi
<? exit(0) ?>
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.0.5
Content-type: text/html

0yes

if php; then echo yes; fi
<? exit(1) ?>
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.0.5
Content-type: text/html

1

i don't see a real reason for the echoed exit status though

Anyone in the Zend core want to comment on this?  I know where the code is that does it.  But it is in the Zend code.

Is there a good reason to put this exit status to stdout?

Simply put - no, it should not.

exit's optional argument is a termination message, not a shell status.

I just got bitten by this. The manual page says that if the value passed
to exit() is integer it is used as exit status.

Or is there some other way to exit from PHP script with an exit status?

--Jani

Fixed in CVS (integer values aren't printed to stdout anymore).