Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!rice!sun-spots-request
From: gbarker@mph.sm.ucl.ac.uk (Dr Gareth J. Barker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: exit() and return() in a C program
Keywords: Miscellaneous
Message-ID: <1173.9008080908@mph.sm.ucl.ac.uk>
Date: 8 Aug 90 09:08:02 GMT
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Organization: Sun-Spots
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Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Originator: spots@titan.rice.edu
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 298, message 11

Can somebody explain to me what the lint message below means?

	titan% cat test.c
	main()
	{
	}
	titan% lint test.c
	test.c(3): warning: main() returns random value to invocation
	environment
	titan% 
    titan% cat test1.c
    void exit();

	main()
	{
		exit(0);
	}
	titan% lint test1.c
	test.c(6): warning: main() returns random value to invocation environment

Replacing exit by return makes lint happy.

	titan% cat test2.c
	main()
	{
		return(0);
	}
	titan% lint test2.c
	titan% 

Is lint just trying to tell me that any function, including main, must
have at least one 'normal' return?  Is this a new feature in 4.1, I
don't remember seeing this before?

-- 
Gareth J. Barker,
Institute of Neurology, Queen Square,
London, UK.

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