testret.c i made... :

#include <stdio.h>
int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
  return atol(argv[1]);
}

compiled that into testret.exe....

test.php i made... :

<?
  exec( 'c:\testret.exe 3', $rlines, $rval );
  var_dump( $rval );
?>

outputs...

int(1)

--------------------

i've traced through the source a bunch trying to find what changed that broke it - my last build (worked fine) was from the cvs head sometime in feb - so the big changes that affect exec() are the streams.  FG(pclose_ret) is not set correctly inside of exec() - i don't feel like getting into the streams right now to find it and i assume someone on the dev team has all of that fresh in their head and can probably find this problem quickly :)

and it's obviously important since i'm sure many many people rely on exec()...

 -benjamin