Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uflorida!haven!vrdxhq!bms-at!stuart
From: stuart@bms-at.UUCP (Stuart Gathman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Strange lint mumblings
Summary: exit is a 'goto' function
Message-ID: <138@bms-at.UUCP>
Date: 19 Dec 88 20:16:57 GMT
References: <416@marob.MASA.COM>
Organization: Business Management Systems, Inc., Fairfax, VA
Lines: 19

In article <416@marob.MASA.COM>, daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond) writes:
> Can anyone explain why the statement:

>     exit(0);	/* followed immediately by main's closing brace */

> causes lint to complain?

Lint does not know that exit(int) is an example of a 'goto' function, i.e.
a function that never returns.  Someone suggested on the net that 'goto'
should be used in a manner similar to 'void' in function declarations
of exit(), longjmp(), and friends to indicate this.  The compiler could
then generate better code (use goto instead of call, don't bother popping
arguments, no need to flush cached variables, etc.).

For now, lint recognizes a magic comment, "/*NOTREACHED*/" which should
follow exit() in your example.
-- 
Stuart D. Gathman	<stuart@bms-at.uucp>
			<..!{vrdxhq|daitc}!bms-at!stuart>