https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=26453
--- Comment #2 from Chris Fairman <chris.fair...@ballaerospace.com> --- Ultimately the issue is that if a non-zero return value is encountered (even when expected) it isn't possible to avoid the following output even when "discardOutput" and/or "discardError" is set: [exec] Result: 1 - or - [exec] Result: <Other Non-Zero Return Value> As use case for expected non-zero return values on Windows, findstr returns 0 if a string is found, non-zero if not. We use a for loop to check the state of a TomEE service that can take a while to stop: <exec executable="cmd" spawn="false" failonerror="false" resultproperty="result" discardError="true" > <arg value="/c" /> <arg value="sc query ${service_name} | findstr STATE | findstr STOPPED"/> </exec> If a service is not in a stopped state yet ( i.e: STOPPING ), ${result} is populated as expected, however "[exec] Result: 1" is displayed despite efforts to avoid output. test.xml: <?xml version="1.0"?> <project name="Exec_Testing" default="all" basedir="."> <target name="return_zero" > <exec executable="cmd" spawn="false" failonerror="false" resultproperty="result" discardOutput="true" discardError="true" > <arg value="/c" /> <arg value="exit 0"/> </exec> </target> <target name="return_nonzero" > <exec executable="cmd" spawn="false" failonerror="false" resultproperty="result" discardOutput="true" discardError="true" > <arg value="/c" /> <arg value="exit 1"/> </exec> </target> </project> --------------- Return Zero --------------- F:\> ant -buildfile test.xml return_zero Buildfile: F:\test.xml return_zero: BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 0 seconds --------------- Return NonZero --------------- F:\> ant -buildfile test.xml return_nonzero Buildfile: F:\test.xml return_nonzero: [exec] Result: 1 BUILD SUCCESSFUL Total time: 0 seconds -- You are receiving this mail because: You are the assignee for the bug.