dart pub publish --dry-run returns exit code 65 on warnings, while actual publish succeeds (exit 0)

[MobiliteDev]

Environment

• Dart/Flutter version :

Flutter 3.32.5 • channel stable • https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
Framework • revision fcf2c11572 (4 months ago) • 2025-06-24 11:44:07 -0700
Engine • revision dd93de6fb1 (4 months ago) • 2025-06-24 07:39:37 -0700
Tools • Dart 3.8.1 • DevTools 2.45.1

• OS kind and version : windows 11 26100.6899

Problem

There is an inconsistency between the dry run return code and whether or not the publish can actually be performed. When warnings appears, dart pub publish --dry-run produces an exit code > 0 (65) while actual publishing doesn't, the package is published.

This causes me a problem for CI. I am trying to find out if my package can actually be published, based on the dry-run error code.

Expected behavior

The exit code of the --dry-run should reflect whether the package can actually be published or not. If the real publish would succeed, the dry-run should return 0.

Actual behavior

--dry-run exit code is 65 but actual publish works with exit code 0.

Step to reproduce

• Create a new package
• Publish version 1.0.0 (preferably on a custom hosted pub)
• Change version of pubspec to 0.0.2 (or any version < 1.0.0), this causes a warning.
• Run :

dart pub publish --dry-run
echo %ERRORLEVEL%   # or check $LASTEXITCODE on PowerShell

• Observe exit code 65 with warnings only.
• Run real publish:

dart pub publish
echo %ERRORLEVEL%   # or check $LASTEXITCODE on PowerShell

• Observe exit code 0 and success.

Questions :

• Am i missing something or doing something wrong ?
• Is returning 65 on warnings in dry-run intended?
  If yes, could we get a flag to treat warnings as success (--no-fatal-warnings / --fatal-warnings) so CI can rely on dry-run?