+@node Exit Status, , Recursive Accept/Reject Options, Invoking
+@section Exit Status
+
+@c man begin EXITSTATUS
+
+Wget may return one of several error codes if it encounters problems.
+
+
+@table @asis
+@item 0
+No problems occurred.
+
+@item 1
+Generic error code.
+
+@item 2
+Parse error---for instance, when parsing command-line options, the
+@samp{.wgetrc} or @samp{.netrc}...
+
+@item 3
+File I/O error.
+
+@item 4
+Network failure.
+
+@item 5
+SSL verification failure.
+
+@item 6
+Username/password authentication failure.
+
+@item 7
+Protocol errors.
+
+@item 8
+Server issued an error response.
+@end table
+
+
+With the exceptions of 0 and 1, the lower-numbered exit codes take
+precedence over higher-numbered ones, when multiple types of errors
+are encountered.
+
+In versions of Wget prior to 1.12, Wget's exit status tended to be
+unhelpful and inconsistent. Recursive downloads would virtually always
+return 0 (success), regardless of any issues encountered, and
+non-recursive fetches only returned the status corresponding to the
+most recently-attempted download.
+
+@c man end
+