How is 'exit()' different for the IOC shell?

["Kasemir, Kay via Tech-talk" <tech-talk@aps.anl.gov>]

Hi:

To test a client for an IOC that keeps restarting, I tried this:

  while true
  do
     softIoc brief.cmd
  done
  
 with brief.cmd like this:
  
  dbLoadDatabase("/path/to/softIoc.dbd")
  dbLoadRecords("demo.db")
  iocInit()
  epicsThreadSleep(10)
  date()
  exit()
  

The IOC starts, after 10 seconds the date is printed, but instead of then exiting, I get the "epics>" prompt.
Same when I don't include "exit()".
Why does exit() in the startup script not exit?
If I type "exit()" at the prompt, the IOC does quit, the while loop restarts it, and I'm back with date & "epics>", again ignoring the exit().

Other idea how to periodically kill/restart an IOC for tests?

Thanks,
-Kay