Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!yale!moran
From: moran@yale-zoo-suned..arpa (William L. Moran Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: return vs exit() [was Re: exit(main(argc,argv,env));]
Message-ID: <20664@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Date: 22 Dec 87 09:16:08 GMT
References: <10875@brl-adm.ARPA> <176@fxgrp.UUCP> <1286@laidbak.UUCP> <1293@laidbak.UUCP>
Sender: root@yale.UUCP
Reply-To: moran@yale-zoo-suned.UUCP (William L. Moran Jr.)
Organization: Yale University - Dept. of Computer Science
Lines: 27

In article <1293@laidbak.UUCP> daveb@laidbak.UUCP (Dave Burton) writes:
...
>
>OK. They are equivalent.
>K&R says so, K&P says so, H&S says so, etc., etc.
>
>Have return and exit() always been equivalent?
>
>If so, why is there an exit() function call, since
>	the semantics are the same?

I hate to make a silly observation like this, but return and exit
aren't the same (they don't have the same semantics) except perhaps
when used in main. Unless I am mistaken, exit() will leave from
anywhere, and return() returns to the calling function (in main this
is like an exit(). Perhaps I have missed the point, but I'm sure
someone will tell me if this is the case.


			  
			  William L. Moran Jr.
moran@{yale.arpa, cs.yale.edu, yalecs.bitnet}  ...{ihnp4!hsi,decvax}!yale!moran

Charm is the great English blight. It does not exist outside these damp
islands. It spots and kills anything it touches. It kills love; it kills 
art; I greatly fear, my dear Charles, it has killed you.
			Brideshead Revisited