What is the difference between exit(0) and exit(1) in C?

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user2134555 picture user2134555 · Mar 30, 2012 · Viewed 271.4k times · Source

Can anyone tell me? What is the difference between exit(0) and exit(1) in C language?

Answer

Alok Save picture Alok Save · Mar 30, 2012

What is the difference between exit(0) and exit(1) in C language?

exit(0) indicates successful program termination & it is fully portable, While
exit(1) (usually) indicates unsucessful termination. However, it's usage is non-portable.

Note that the C standard defines EXIT_SUCCESS and EXIT_FAILURE to return termination status from a C program.

0 and EXIT_SUCCESS are the values specified by the standard to indicate successful termination, however, only EXIT_FAILURE is the standard value for returning unsucessful termination. 1 is used for the same in many implementations though.


Reference:

C99 Standard: 7.20.4.3 The exit function
Para 5

Finally, control is returned to the host environment. If the value of status is zero or EXIT_SUCCESS, an implementation-defined form of the status successful termination is returned. If the value of status is EXIT_FAILURE , an implementation-defined form of the status unsuccessful termination is returned. Otherwise the status returned is implementation-defined.