man-pages/man3/exit.3

.\" Copyright (C) 2001 Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>.
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.TH EXIT 3  2009-09-20 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
exit \- cause normal process termination
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <stdlib.h>
.sp
.BI "void exit(int " status );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.BR exit ()
function causes normal process termination and the
value of \fIstatus & 0377\fP is returned to the parent
(see
.BR wait (2)).
.LP
All functions registered with
.BR atexit (3)
and
.BR on_exit (3)
are called, in the reverse order of their registration.
(It is possible for one of these functions to use
.BR atexit (3)
or
.BR on_exit (3)
to register an additional
function to be executed during exit processing;
the new registration is added to the front of the list of functions
that remain to be called.)
If one of these functions does not return
(e.g., it calls
.BR _exit (2),
or kills itself with a signal),
then none of the remaining functions is called,
and further exit processing (in particular, flushing of
.BR stdio (3)
streams) is abandoned.
If a function has been registered multiple times using
.BR atexit (3)
or
.BR on_exit (3),
then it is called as many times as it was registered.
.LP
All open
.BR stdio (3)
streams are flushed and closed.
Files created by
.BR tmpfile (3)
are removed.
.LP
The C standard specifies two constants,
\fBEXIT_SUCCESS\fP and \fBEXIT_FAILURE\fP,
that may be passed to
.BR exit ()
to indicate successful or unsuccessful
termination, respectively.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
The
.BR exit ()
function does not return.
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001, C89, C99.
.SH NOTES
.LP
It is undefined what happens if one of the
functions registered using
.BR atexit (3)
and
.BR on_exit (3)
calls either
.BR exit ()
or
.BR longjmp (3).
.LP
The use of
.B EXIT_SUCCESS
and
.B EXIT_FAILURE
is slightly more portable
(to non-UNIX environments) than the use of 0 and some nonzero value
like 1 or \-1.
In particular, VMS uses a different convention.
.LP
BSD has attempted to standardize exit codes; see the file
.IR <sysexits.h> .
.LP
After
.BR exit (),
the exit status must be transmitted to the
parent process.
There are three cases.
If the parent has set
.BR SA_NOCLDWAIT ,
or has set the
.B SIGCHLD
handler to
.BR SIG_IGN ,
the status is discarded.
If the parent was waiting on the child
it is notified of the exit status.
In both cases the exiting
process dies immediately.
If the parent has not indicated that
it is not interested in the exit status, but is not waiting,
the exiting process turns into a "zombie" process
(which is nothing but a container for the single byte representing
the exit status) so that the parent can learn the exit status when
it later calls one of the
.BR wait (2)
functions.
.LP
If the implementation supports the
.B SIGCHLD
signal, this signal
is sent to the parent.
If the parent has set
.BR SA_NOCLDWAIT ,
it is undefined whether a
.B SIGCHLD
signal is sent.
.LP
If the process is a session leader and its controlling terminal
is the controlling terminal of the session, then each process in
the foreground process group of this controlling terminal
is sent a
.B SIGHUP
signal, and the terminal is disassociated
from this session, allowing it to be acquired by a new controlling
process.
.LP
If the exit of the process causes a process group to become orphaned,
and if any member of the newly orphaned process group is stopped,
then a
.B SIGHUP
signal followed by a
.B SIGCONT
signal will be
sent to each process in this process group.
See
.BR setpgid (2)
for an explanation of orphaned process groups.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR _exit (2),
.BR setpgid (2),
.BR wait (2),
.BR atexit (3),
.BR on_exit (3),
.BR tmpfile (3)