.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information .\" Processing Systems. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)exit.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/stdlib/exit.3,v 1.16 2007/01/09 00:28:09 imp Exp $ .\" .Dd September 9, 2002 .Dt EXIT 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm exit , _Exit .Nd perform normal program termination .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In stdlib.h .Ft void .Fn exit "int status" .Ft void .Fn _Exit "int status" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn exit and .Fn _Exit functions terminate a process. .Pp Before termination, .Fn exit performs the following functions in the order listed: .Bl -enum -offset indent .It Call the functions registered with the .Xr atexit 3 function, in the reverse order of their registration. .It Flush all open output streams. .It Close all open streams. .It Unlink all files created with the .Xr tmpfile 3 function. .El .Pp The .Fn _Exit function terminates without calling the functions registered with the .Xr atexit 3 function, and may or may not perform the other actions listed. Both functions make the low-order eight bits of the .Fa status argument available to a parent process which has called a .Xr wait 2 Ns -family function. .Pp The C Standard .Pq St -isoC-99 defines the values .Li 0 , .Dv EXIT_SUCCESS , and .Dv EXIT_FAILURE as possible values of .Fa status . Cooperating processes may use other values; in a program which might be called by a mail transfer agent, the values described in .Xr sysexits 3 may be used to provide more information to the parent process. .Pp Note that .Fn exit does nothing to prevent bottomless recursion should a function registered using .Xr atexit 3 itself call .Fn exit . Such functions must call .Fn _Exit instead (although this has other effects as well which may not be desired). .Sh RETURN VALUES The .Fn exit and .Fn _Exit functions never return. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr _exit 2 , .Xr wait 2 , .Xr atexit 3 , .Xr intro 3 , .Xr sysexits 3 , .Xr tmpfile 3 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn exit and .Fn _Exit functions conform to .St -isoC-99 .