xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/stdlib/exit.3 (revision 898184e3)
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32.\"	$OpenBSD: exit.3,v 1.12 2011/11/17 14:26:14 schwarze Exp $
33.\"
34.Dd $Mdocdate: November 17 2011 $
35.Dt EXIT 3
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm exit, _Exit
39.Nd perform normal program termination
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Fd #include <stdlib.h>
42.Ft void
43.Fn exit "int status"
44.Ft void
45.Fn _Exit "int status"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Fn exit
49and
50.Fn _Exit
51functions terminate a process.
52.Pp
53Before termination,
54.Fn exit
55performs the following operations in the order listed:
56.Bl -enum -offset indent
57.It
58Call the functions registered with the
59.Xr atexit 3
60function, in the reverse order of their registration.
61.It
62Flush all open output streams.
63.It
64Close all open streams.
65.It
66Unlink all files created with the
67.Xr tmpfile 3
68function.
69.El
70.Pp
71The
72.Fn _Exit
73function terminates without calling the functions registered with the
74.Xr atexit 3
75function.
76The
77.Ox
78implementation of
79.Fn _Exit
80does not flush open output streams or unlink files created with the
81.Xr tmpfile 3
82function.
83However, this behavior is implementation-specific.
84.Pp
85Lastly,
86.Fn exit
87and
88.Fn _Exit
89call
90.Xr _exit 2 .
91Note that typically
92.Xr _exit 2
93only passes the lower 8 bits of
94.Fa status
95on to the parent, thus negative values have less meaning.
96.Sh RETURN VALUES
97The
98.Fn exit
99and
100.Fn _Exit
101functions never return.
102.Sh SEE ALSO
103.Xr _exit 2 ,
104.Xr atexit 3 ,
105.Xr intro 3 ,
106.Xr sysexits 3 ,
107.Xr tmpfile 3
108.Sh STANDARDS
109The
110.Fn exit
111and
112.Fn _Exit
113functions conform to
114.St -ansiC-99 .
115.Sh HISTORY
116An
117.Fn exit
118function first appeared as a system call in
119.At v1 .
120In
121.At v7 ,
122the bare system call was renamed to
123.Xr _exit 2 .
124