Why doesn't a failed BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer return an error code in the command line?

Cause

When a build fails when using BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer, Unity will continue working on the method after BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer has completed. Once the entire method is run, Unity will stop returning the successful error code.

If there are any exceptions or crashes when opening the project, an error code of failed will be returned.

Resolution

BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer returns a string - if this string is empty, the build was successful. The following code shows an example of reading the error and exiting Unity, sending the value 0 if the build was successful and 1 if it failed.

string error = BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer( levels, "iOS ", BuildTarget.iOS, BuildOptions.None );
if( string.IsNullOrEmpty( error ) )
    EditorApplication.Exit( 0 );
else
    EditorApplication.Exit( 1 );

Alternatively, if a specific exit code is required (not 1), then when an exception is thrown (for example throw new System.Exception( "error message" );), Unity Editor will exit with exit code 1.

Note that when calling EditorApplication.Exit from script, -quit is not necessary to automatically exit the Editor once it is completed as the method will already exit the Editor before the end. If an exception is thrown or other errors occur, however, the Editor will remain open if -quit is not used.

More Information

For more information, consult the following documentation:

• Command line arguments
• BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer
• EditorApplication.Exit