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exit, _exit

Terminate the calling process after cleanup (exit) or immediately (_exit).

void exit( 
   int status 
);
void _exit( 
   int status 
);

Parameters

  • status
    Exit status.

Remarks

The exit and _exit functions terminate the calling process. exit calls, in last-in-first-out (LIFO) order, the functions registered by atexit and _onexit, then flushes all file buffers before terminating the process. _exit terminates the process without processing atexit or _onexit or flushing stream buffers. The status value is typically set to 0 to indicate a normal exit and set to some other value to indicate an error.

Although the exit and _exit calls do not return a value, the low-order byte of status is made available to the waiting calling process, if one exists, after the calling process exits. The status value is available to the operating-system batch command ERRORLEVEL and is represented by one of two constants: EXIT_SUCCESS, which represents a value of 0, or EXIT_FAILURE, which represents a value of 1. The behavior of exit, _exit, _cexit, and _c_exit is as follows.

Function

Description

exit

Performs complete C library termination procedures, terminates the process, and exits with the supplied status code.

_exit

Performs quick C library termination procedures, terminates the process, and exits with the supplied status code.

_cexit

Performs complete C library termination procedures and returns to the caller, but does not terminate the process.

_c_exit

Performs quick C library termination procedures and returns to the caller, but does not terminate the process.

When you call the exit or _exit functions, the destructors for any temporary or automatic objects that exist at the time of the call are not called. An automatic object is an object that is defined in a function where the object is not declared to be static. A temporary object is an object created by the compiler. To destroy an automatic object before calling exit or _exit, explicitly call the destructor for the object, as follows:

myObject.myClass::~myClass();

You should not call exit from DllMain with DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH. If you want to exit the DLLMain function, return FALSE from DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH.

Requirements

Function

Required header

exit

<process.h> or <stdlib.h>

_exit

<process.h> or <stdlib.h>

For additional compatibility information, see Compatibility in the Introduction.

Example

// crt_exit.c
// This program returns an exit code of 1. The
// error code could be tested in a batch file.


#include <stdlib.h>

int main( void )
{
   exit( 1 );
}

.NET Framework Equivalent

System::Diagnostics::Process::Kill

See Also

Reference

Process and Environment Control

abort

atexit

_cexit, _c_exit

_exec, _wexec Functions

_onexit, _onexit_m

_spawn, _wspawn Functions

system, _wsystem