Different exit code for internal failures

[samsternatretool]

Description of the feature request:

I recently had a build fail with this error:

ERROR: loading failure: com.google.devtools.build.lib.rules.repository.RepositoryFunction$AlreadyReportedRepositoryAccessException: java.io.IOException: Error downloading [https://nodejs.org/dist/v18.18.2/node-v18.18.2-linux-x64.tar.xz] to {...}: GET returned 500 Internal Server Error

The build exited with code 1, which indicates build failure (according to this page). However I'd love to be able to distinguish between "could not build the code" and "an exception was thrown within Bazel itself".

Unfortunately a lot of modern builds do require downloading toolchains / dependencies from external sources and occasionally those sources experience downtime. In that case I'd like to retry my build, but I don't want to retry an actual failure to build my code once dependencies have been downloaded.

This is sort of like how I get code 39 when there is a remote cache eviction error, which is very useful.

Which category does this issue belong to?

CLI, External Dependency

What underlying problem are you trying to solve with this feature?

I'd like to know when retrying my failed build has some chance of success (transient external issue) vs actual fatal errors (code is not buildable).

Which operating system are you running Bazel on?

Mac

What is the output of bazel info release?

release 7.2.1

If bazel info release returns development version or (@non-git), tell us how you built Bazel.

N/A

What's the output of git remote get-url origin; git rev-parse HEAD ?

Private.

Have you found anything relevant by searching the web?

No response

Any other information, logs, or outputs that you want to share?

No response