It would be useful if munpack indicated success/failure as a return code:

0 - file(s) successfully decoded
1 - no files decoded

This would make it compatable with uudecode.

This would greatly help me in using munpack in scripts.  I might at
some stage have a look at the code and patch it myself, but for now I
am just going to use uudecode....

for the record:
fred $cat /etc/debian_version
2.2
fred $dpkg -l mpack
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
|
Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii  mpack          1.5-5          Tools for encoding/decoding MIME messages.
fred $uudecode test1
fred $echo $?
0
fred $uudecode test2
uudecode: test2: Short file
fred $echo $?
1
fred $rm 3817_521.doc
fred $munpack test1
3817_521.doc (application/octet-stream)
fred $echo $?
0
fred $munpack test2
Did not find anything to unpack from test2
fred $echo $?
0

I think it would be a bad idea to make mpack's exit codes different
on Debian than on other systems.  The correct place to make this change
is upstream, and mpack hasn't had an upstream for years.  So this issue
will have to remain unsolved until that changes.

The compatibility problem I'm worried about is that not having
anything to unpack is not a "failure" in the way that, for example,
being unable to read the source file is.  Changing the exit codes
the way you describe would make those cases indistinguishable.
It wouldn't surprise me if there are scripts that don't expect
mpack to fail just because there wasn't anything to unpack.
Such a script might for example run mpack on a whole newsgroup,
one file at a time.

Richard Braakman