Appendix C: Exit Codes

hande always prints a plain-English explanation alongside any error — these codes are for scripting against hande’s exit status, not something you need to memorize day to day. Every code below is what $? holds after hande exits with that particular problem.

Code	What it means
1	An internal file target for :edit couldn’t be resolved — shouldn’t occur in normal use.
3	An internal request for data hande doesn’t recognize — shouldn’t occur in normal use.
10	The handler program named on a bookmark (or the default one hande inferred) isn’t on your $PATH.
11	A reference (Appendix B) doesn’t resolve to a real bookmark in the category it points to.
12	A reference illegally targets a command bookmark, or a command bookmark illegally contains a reference.
13	A reference’s target couldn’t be validated.
19	A bookmark or category entry is malformed in some way: an illegal character, unclosed brackets or braces, an empty required field, embedded spaces where they aren’t allowed, or a name that’s too short. The accompanying message always names the specific problem.
20	Two bookmarks (or two categories) share the same name where they shouldn’t.
21	The category named for a delete or rename operation doesn’t exist.
22	Your default category’s own file is missing, and create-missing-category is off (see Chapter 7).
24	The category named for editing doesn’t exist.
25	You tried to create a category that already exists.
26	A named category’s file couldn’t be found.
27	A category name contains a space or a period, neither of which is allowed in a category’s own name.
28	You set the same category in two different ways at once (e.g. both --category and a qualified name), or used a period inside an @ shortcut chain (see Chapter 1).
30	A bookmark’s file type has no handler configured for it, on the bookmark itself or in [[formats]] (see Chapter 7).
31	A bookmark reference has an unnecessary period in it.
32	An unrecognized symbol or search-service name was used.
34	An alias/tag lookup (/, Chapter 1) found nothing, or a named search-service bookmark doesn’t exist.
35	The shortcut key you typed isn’t assigned to any bookmark in scope.
36	No categories at all were found in the database — shouldn’t occur, since a fresh install always creates a default one.
37	A character in an @ shortcut chain (Chapter 1) isn’t assigned to any category or subcategory.
38	No record exists yet of your last-visited bookmark (used by the --summary/-0 flag).
40	The bookmark named for deletion couldn’t be found.
49	You tried to combine a search phrase with an explicit --category — searches are always global.
52	The = (www) link shortcut was used somewhere other than a bookmark or category address.
55	A reference chain went three levels deep — only two are allowed, to keep references from looping.
58	An exclamation mark was used somewhere it doesn’t belong inside a link shortcut.
60	You tried to use one of hande’s own reserved names ($home$, $search$, $help$, $manual$) as an ordinary bookmark’s name.
65	You asked hande to use a bookmark as a search engine, but it isn’t flagged for search (Chapter 5).
70	An import or export operation failed; the accompanying message explains why.