C Exit Codes

C exit codes

Created By: chatGPT

Exit codes in C are used to indicate the completion status of a program. They are typically returned by the main function and can be used to signify whether the program executed successfully or encountered an error. By convention, an exit code of 0 indicates success, while any non-zero value represents an error. Here's a simple example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    // Successful execution
    return 0;
}

int main() {
    // Error scenario
    return 1;
}

You can also use the exit() function from the <stdlib.h> library for terminating the program with a specified exit status. This allows you to exit from anywhere within your program rather than just at the main function's return statement in case of complex programs:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void check_condition(int condition) {
    if (condition) {
        printf("Success\n");
        exit(0);
    } else {
        printf("Error occurred\n");
        exit(1);
    }
}

int main() {
    check_condition(1);
    check_condition(0);
}

When calling a program from the terminal or another script, you can check the exit code by using $? in a shell environment, which contains the exit code of the last executed command. Here's a brief example of how this works:

gcc program.c -o program
./program
echo $? // This will print the exit code

Using meaningful exit codes is essential for debugging and understanding the flow of a program. You can define custom exit codes by returning distinct integers for various error conditions. For example:

#include <stdio.h>

#define SUCCESS 0
#define ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND 1
#define ERROR_PERMISSION_DENIED 2

int main() {
    printf("File not found!\n");
    return ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND;
}