abort()

[swgh]

Quick question:

Does abort() return anything? It is safer to use then exit(0) I have been told. If I define a function like so:

int terminateMe ( void ) // expected to return an integer
{
   // do somthing illegal
   
   if ( // bad )
   {
      abort();
    }
}

Would abort() return somthing to the OS?

Thanks in advance.

[twomers]

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...02(VS.60).aspx

Void, apparently.

[swgh]

Thanks!

[Mario F.]

err... abort() returns a system dependent error code to the hosting environment.

It is safer to use then exit(0) I have been told

Depends on the circumstances. But usually exit() is better because at least any static objects destructos are called. abort() terminates immediately.

An explicit call to exit(0) however is probably a bad idea because it implies successful termination, which is not the case since any objects local to the function where exit is called will not have their destructors called. An application that for some reason relies on exit(), should also employ atexit() for proper destruction of local objects.

[brewbuck]

Quick question:

Does abort() return anything?

How could a function which aborts, possibly return anything?

It is safer to use then exit(0) I have been told. If I define a function like so:

Who told you exit() was unsafe? exit() is fine. abort() will cause an ABNORMAL termination -- i.e., a crash. If all you want to do is terminate, this is not what you want to do.

[CornedBee]

abort() is for critical situations, when your application state is totally hosed, and any further action would just cause more errors. The program will die, no questions asked. The system will get, as was mentioned, an implementation-dependent error code.

One example: std::terminate() calls abort() and is thus effectively equivalent. std::terminate() is called when the exception handling mechanism encounters a bad problem that it cannot handle.