ABORT
Section: POSIX Programmer's Manual (3P)
Updated: 2017
Page Index
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This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
abort
--- generate an abnormal process abort
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
void abort(void);
DESCRIPTION
The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the
ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the
ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of POSIX.1-2017 defers to the ISO C standard.
The
abort()
function shall cause abnormal process termination to occur, unless the
signal SIGABRT is being caught and the signal handler does not return.
The abnormal termination processing shall include the default actions
defined for SIGABRT and may include an attempt to effect
fclose()
on all open streams.
The SIGABRT signal shall be sent to the calling process as if by means
of
raise()
with the argument SIGABRT.
The status made available to
wait(),
waitid(),
or
waitpid()
by
abort()
shall be that of a process terminated by the SIGABRT signal.
The
abort()
function shall override blocking or ignoring the SIGABRT signal.
RETURN VALUE
The
abort()
function shall not return.
ERRORS
No errors are defined.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
Catching the signal is intended to provide the application developer with
a portable means to abort processing, free from possible interference
from any implementation-supplied functions.
RATIONALE
The ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard requires the
abort()
function to be async-signal-safe. Since POSIX.1-2008 defers to the ISO C standard,
this required a change to the DESCRIPTION from ``shall include the
effect of
fclose()''
to ``may include an attempt to effect
fclose().''
The revised wording permits some backwards-compatibility and avoids a
potential deadlock situation.
The Open Group Base Resolution bwg2002-003 is applied, removing the
following XSI shaded paragraph from the DESCRIPTION:
``On XSI-conformant systems, in addition the abnormal termination
processing shall include the effect of
fclose()
on message catalog descriptors.''
There were several reasons to remove this paragraph:
- *
-
No special processing of open message catalogs needs to be performed
prior to abnormal process termination.
- *
-
The main reason to specifically mention that
abort()
includes the effect of
fclose()
on open streams is to flush output queued on the stream. Message
catalogs in this context are read-only and, therefore, do not need to
be flushed.
- *
-
The effect of
fclose()
on a message catalog descriptor is unspecified. Message catalog
descriptors are allowed, but not required to be implemented using a
file descriptor, but there is no mention in POSIX.1-2008 of a message catalog
descriptor using a standard I/O stream FILE object as would be expected
by
fclose().
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
exit(),
kill(),
raise(),
signal(),
wait(),
waitid()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
<stdlib.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
in this page are most likely
to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .