abort(3) Library Functions Manual abort(3)
NAME
abort - cause abnormal process termination
LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
[[noreturn]] void abort(void);
DESCRIPTION
The abort() function first unblocks the SIGABRT signal, and then raises
that signal for the calling process (as though raise(3) was called).
This results in the abnormal termination of the process unless the
SIGABRT signal is caught and the signal handler does not return (see
longjmp(3)).
If the SIGABRT signal is ignored, or caught by a handler that returns,
the abort() function will still terminate the process. It does this by
restoring the default disposition for SIGABRT and then raising the sig-
nal for a second time.
As with other cases of abnormal termination the functions registered
with atexit(3) and on_exit(3) are not called.
RETURN VALUE
The abort() function never returns.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attrib-
utes(7).
┌───────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│ Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├───────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│ abort() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
└───────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
STANDARDS
C11, POSIX.1-2008.
HISTORY
SVr4, POSIX.1-2001, 4.3BSD, C89.
Up until glibc 2.26, if the abort() function caused process termina-
tion, all open streams were closed and flushed (as with fclose(3)).
However, in some cases this could result in deadlocks and data corrup-
tion. Therefore, starting with glibc 2.27, abort() terminates the
process without flushing streams. POSIX.1 permits either possible be-
havior, saying that abort() "may include an attempt to effect fclose()
on all open streams".
SEE ALSO
gdb(1), sigaction(2), assert(3), exit(3), longjmp(3), raise(3)
Linux man-pages 6.7 2023-10-31 abort(3)
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