functions that don't return

Ray Butterworth rbutterworth at watmath.UUCP
Mon Oct 6 23:16:49 AEST 1986


> I think it should be the second choice, main(); exit(0);.  The reason
> is two fold.  First, unless a program specifically bombs off, it
> should exit with a happy status.  Falling off the bottom of main I
> would not consider to be doing anything specific yet the return (and
> exit) value will be random.  Second, with a random exit status, it
> makes the program much less usefull.  Make(1) will sometimes work and
> sometimes fail, etc.

If you change that to "main(); exit(1);" I'll agree with you.
Programs should definitely not exit with a random status,
but I think we should do as much as possible to encourage the programmer
to be aware that it is his responsibility to return a meaningful status.



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