ATEXIT(3)

NAME
atexit - register a function to be called at normal process termination

SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>

int atexit(void (*function)(void));

DESCRIPTION
The atexit() function registers the given function to be called at normal process termination, either via exit(3) or via return from the program's main(). Functions so registered are called in the reverse order of their registration; no arguments are passed.

POSIX.1-2001 requires that an implementation allow at least ATEXIT_MAX (32) such functions to be registered. The actual limit supported by an implementation can be obtained using sysconf(3).

When a child process is created via fork(2), it inherits copies of its parent's registrations. Upon a successful call to one of the exec(3) functions, all registrations are removed.

RETURN VALUE
The atexit() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise it returns a non-zero value.

CONFORMING TO
SVr4, 4.3BSD, C89, C99, POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES
Functions registered using atexit() (and on_exit(3)) are not called if a process terminates abnormally because of the delivery of a signal.

  Linux Notes
Since glibc 2.2.3, atexit() (and on_exit(3)) can be used within a shared library to establish functions that are called when the shared library is unloaded.

EXAMPLE
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
void
bye(void)
{
    printf("That was all, folks\n");
}
int
main(void)
{
    long a;
    int i;
    a = sysconf(_SC_ATEXIT_MAX);
    printf("ATEXIT_MAX = %ld\n", a);
    i = atexit(bye);
    if (i != 0) {
        fprintf(stderr, "cannot set exit function\n");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

SEE ALSO
_exit(2), exit(3), on_exit(3)

COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.09 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting documentation bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.