ABORT(3P)

💅 ABORT(3P) — or, how to rage-quit a process, the POSIX way 🫶

okay bestie, quick heads up before we dive in: this is the POSIX Programmer's Manual version of abort(3P). That means the Linux implementation of this interface may differ — so if you're on Linux, go peek at the corresponding Linux manual page for the tea ☕. Or honestly? The interface might not even be implemented on Linux at all. 🙈 Anyway. Sit down, get comfy, we're doing this.

---

✨ PROLOG ✨

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. that's it. that's the whole vibe. it's giving "i'm ending this, right now, no further discussion." 💀

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <stdlib.h>

void abort(void);

look at her. no arguments. no return value. she simply does not come back. iconic behaviour, honestly.

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Everything described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. If anything here conflicts with the ISO C standard, that conflict is unintentional — no drama intended, fr fr. This volume of POSIX.1‐2017 defers to the ISO C standard. periodt.

So, what does abort() actually do? She shall cause abnormal process termination to occur — unless the signal SIGABRT is being caught and the signal handler does not return. (Yeah. That exception is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Remember her.)

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.

And the status that gets made available to wait(), waitid(), or waitpid() because of abort() shall be that of a process terminated by the SIGABRT signal.

Oh, and one more thing — very main character of her: abort() shall override blocking or ignoring the SIGABRT signal. You can't ghost her. You can't mute her. She's coming through. 🚪💥

---

💖 RETURN VALUE 💖

The abort() function shall not return.

that's it. that's the return value section. she leaves, and she does not text back. 😭

---

⭐ ERRORS ⭐

No errors are defined.

The following sections are informative.

---

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

None.

(yeah, the examples section is empty. the example is the friends we aborted along the way, bestie. 🎀)

---

💜 APPLICATION USAGE 💜

Catching the signal is intended to give the application developer a portable means to abort processing, free from possible interference from any implementation-supplied functions. so like — you get to be the one in control of your own dramatic exit. slay. 💅

---

🔥 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. (we love not deadlocking. we love it so much.)

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().

so basically: old paragraph was extra, and we said "not today, bestie." ✂️✨

---

🧚 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🧚

None.

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• exit()
• kill()
• raise()
• signal()
• wait()
• waitid()

Also! 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 .

---

okay and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶 this one came to you courtesy of IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017, and if you ever need to find her again in the wild, she's filed under ABORT(3P). go forth and abort responsibly (or at least intentionally). mwah 💖✨