Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: exit(n) vs return(n)-from-main
Message-ID: <9876@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 18 Dec 87 22:05:23 GMT
References: <10875@brl-adm.ARPA> <176@fxgrp.UUCP> <1286@laidbak.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 17

In article <1286@laidbak.UUCP> daveb@laidbak.UUCP (Dave Burton) writes:
-They are NOT equivalent!
-At least in the UNIX environment, exit() is a function that flushes all
-buffers (and closes all file descriptors?), as well as handling functions
-registered via onexit(), finally calling _exit(), a system call that
-never returns.
-
-Using return instead of exit() bypasses this cleanup operation.

If it does, the system is broken.

exit(n) and return(n)-from-main are supposed to be equivalent.  Among
those systems that get it wrong are various releases of SunOS (where
the difference was intentional, yet still wrong).
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris