.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" 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.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" $FreeBSD: head/lib/libc/sys/_exit.2 165903 2007-01-09 00:28:16Z imp $ .\" .Dd June 4, 1993 .Dt EXIT 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm _exit .Nd terminate the calling process .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In unistd.h .Ft void .Fn _exit "int status" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn _exit system call terminates a process with the following consequences: .Bl -bullet .It All of the descriptors open in the calling process are closed. This may entail delays, for example, waiting for output to drain; a process in this state may not be killed, as it is already dying. .It If the parent process of the calling process has an outstanding .Xr wait 2 call or catches the .Dv SIGCHLD signal, it is notified of the calling process's termination and the .Fa status is set as defined by .Xr wait 2 . .It The parent process-ID of all of the calling process's existing child processes are set to 1; the initialization process inherits each of these processes (see .Xr init 8 and the .Sx DEFINITIONS section of .Xr intro 2 ) . .It If the termination of the process causes any process group to become orphaned (usually because the parents of all members of the group have now exited; see .Dq orphaned process group in .Xr intro 2 ) , and if any member of the orphaned group is stopped, the .Dv SIGHUP signal and the .Dv SIGCONT signal are sent to all members of the newly-orphaned process group. .It If the process is a controlling process (see .Xr intro 2 ) , the .Dv SIGHUP signal is sent to the foreground process group of the controlling terminal, and all current access to the controlling terminal is revoked. .El .Pp Most C programs call the library routine .Xr exit 3 , which flushes buffers, closes streams, unlinks temporary files, etc., before calling .Fn _exit . .Sh RETURN VALUES The .Fn _exit system call can never return. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr fork 2 , .Xr sigaction 2 , .Xr wait 2 , .Xr exit 3 , .Xr init 8 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn _exit system call is expected to conform to .St -p1003.1-90 . .Sh HISTORY The .Fn _exit function appeared in .At v7 .