abort

Defined in header `<stdlib.h>`
void abort(void);		(until C11)
_Noreturn void abort(void);		(since C11)

Causes abnormal program termination unless SIGABRT is being caught by a signal handler passed to signal and the handler does not return.

Functions passed to atexit() are not called. Whether open resources such as files are closed is implementation defined. An implementation defined status is returned to the host environment that indicates unsuccessful execution.

Parameters

(none)

Return value

(none)

Notes

POSIX specifies that the abort() function overrides blocking or ignoring the SIGABRT signal.

Example

Run this code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
 
int main(void) 
{
    FILE *fp = fopen("data.txt","r");
    if (fp == NULL) {
       fprintf(stderr, "error opening file data.txt in function main()\n");
       abort();
    }
 
    /* Normal processing continues here. */
    fclose(fp);
    printf("Normal Return\n");
    return 0;
}

Output:

error opening file data.txt in function main()

References

C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

7.22.4.1 The abort function (p: 350)

C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

7.20.4.1 The abort function (p: 315)

C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

4.10.4.1 The abort function

Language
Headers
Type support
Program utilities
Variadic function support
Error handling
Dynamic memory management
Date and time utilities
Strings library
Algorithms
Numerics
Input/output support
Localization support
Atomic operations (C11)
Thread support (C11)
Technical Specifications

exit	causes normal program termination with cleaning up (function)
atexit	registers a function to be called on exit() invocation (function)
quick_exit (C11)	causes normal program termination without completely cleaning up (function)