Difference between using exit(n) and return n in main()?

[fwee]

What is the difference between using exit(n) and return n in main(), if
any? I know that exit(n) is a function that exits and return n exits via a
return value, but is there any reason to specify one rather than the
other? Thanks!

[Jack Klein]

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 01:43:32 GMT, "fwee" <no****@nospam.com> wrote in
comp.lang.c:

What is the difference between using exit(n) and return n in main(), if
any? I know that exit(n) is a function that exits and return n exits via a
return value, but is there any reason to specify one rather than the
other? Thanks!

This is a FAQ:

11.16 Is exit(status) truly equivalent to returning the same status
from main?

See http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/q11.16.html

--
Jack Klein
Home: http://JK-Technology.Com
FAQs for
comp.lang.c http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
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alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ ftp://snurse-l.org/pub/acllc-c++/faq

[Jeff Rodriguez]

fwee wrote:

What is the difference between using exit(n) and return n in main(), if
any? I know that exit(n) is a function that exits and return n exits via a
return value, but is there any reason to specify one rather than the
other? Thanks!

Exit exit the program with n status no matter how deeply you've recursed
in functions.

Example:

int blah (void)
{
return 1;
/* exit(1) would actually exit the program here, whereas return
does not */
}

int main (void)
{
blah();
return 0;
/* exit(0) and return have pretty much the same function in this
context */
}