+
+=item die
+
+C<die> will force the native VMS exit status to be an SS$_ABORT code
+if neither of the $! or $? status values are ones that would cause
+the native status to be interpreted as being what VMS classifies as
+SEVERE_ERROR severity for DCL error handling.
+
+When the future POSIX_EXIT mode is active, C<die>, the native VMS exit
+status value will have either one of the C<$!> or C<$?> or C<$^E> or
+the UNIX value 255 encoded into it in a way that the effective original
+value can be decoded by other programs written in C, including Perl
+and the GNV package. As per the normal non-VMS behavior of C<die> if
+either C<$!> or C<$?> are non-zero, one of those values will be
+encoded into a native VMS status value. If both of the UNIX status
+values are 0, and the C<$^E> value is set one of ERROR or SEVERE_ERROR
+severity, then the C<$^E> value will be used as the exit code as is.
+If none of the above apply, the UNIX value of 255 will be encoded into
+a native VMS exit status value.
+
+Please note a significant difference in the behavior of C<die> in
+the future POSIX_EXIT mode is that it does not force a VMS
+SEVERE_ERROR status on exit. The UNIX exit values of 2 through
+255 will be encoded in VMS status values with severity levels of
+SUCCESS. The UNIX exit value of 1 will be encoded in a VMS status
+value with a severity level of ERROR. This is to be compatible with
+how the VMS C library encodes these values.
+
+The minimum severity level set by C<die> in a future POSIX_EXIT mode
+may be changed to be ERROR or higher before that mode becomes fully active
+depending on the results of testing and further review. If this is
+done, the behavior of c<DIE> in the future POSIX_EXIT will close enough
+to the default mode that most DCL shell scripts will probably not notice
+a difference.
+
+See C<$?> for a description of the encoding of the UNIX value to
+produce a native VMS status containing it.
+
+