Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!oddjob!uwvax!vanvleck!uwmcsd1!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!proxftl!bill
From: bill@proxftl.UUCP (T. William Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: is there anything wrong with return(n) from main?
Summary: not really
Message-ID: <417@proxftl.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jul 88 08:50:07 GMT
References: <741@vsi.UUCP>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Proximity Technology, Ft. Lauderdale
Lines: 11

In article <741@vsi.UUCP>, friedl@vsi.UUCP (Stephen J. Friedl) writes:
>      For some unknown reason, I have always felt uncomfortable
> doing a return(n) from main: I used exit(n) instead.  Can anybody
> think of any possible reason why a return is not a good idea?  I
> have the feeling that my discomfort is entirely unfounded...

The only reason I can think of is broken compilers. The two
should be equivalent. Of course, one of those broken compilers
is the one we have ... on a Sun 3 running SunOS 3.4. It acts as
if return (n) were a return (0). [I understand that that
has been fixed in a later release.]