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'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 1995-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\"
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'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: Exit.3,v 1.1.1.1 2002-01-16 10:25:23 markom Exp $
'\" 
.so man.macros
.TH Tcl_Exit 3 7.7 Tcl "Tcl Library Procedures"
.BS
.SH NAME
Tcl_Exit, Tcl_Finalize, Tcl_CreateExitHandler, Tcl_DeleteExitHandler \- end the application (and invoke exit handlers)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
\fB#include <tcl.h>\fR
.sp
\fBTcl_Exit\fR(\fIstatus\fR)
.sp
\fBTcl_Finalize\fR()
.sp
\fBTcl_CreateExitHandler\fR(\fIproc, clientData\fR)
.sp
\fBTcl_DeleteExitHandler\fR(\fIproc, clientData\fR)
.SH ARGUMENTS
.AS Tcl_ExitProc clientData
.AP int status  in
Provides information about why application exited.  Exact meaning may
be platform-specific.  0 usually means a normal exit, any nonzero value
usually means that an error occurred.
.AP Tcl_ExitProc *proc in
Procedure to invoke before exiting application.
.AP ClientData clientData in
Arbitrary one-word value to pass to \fIproc\fR.
.BE

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
The procedures described here provide a graceful mechanism to end the
execution of a \fBTcl\fR application. Exit handlers are invoked to cleanup the
application's state before ending the execution of \fBTcl\fR code.
.PP
Invoke \fBTcl_Exit\fR to end a \fBTcl\fR application and to exit from this
process. This procedure is invoked by the \fBexit\fR command, and can be
invoked anyplace else to terminate the application.
No-one should ever invoke the \fBexit\fR system procedure directly;  always
invoke \fBTcl_Exit\fR instead, so that it can invoke exit handlers.
Note that if other code invokes \fBexit\fR system procedure directly, or
otherwise causes the application to terminate without calling
\fBTcl_Exit\fR, the exit handlers will not be run.
\fBTcl_Exit\fR internally invokes the \fBexit\fR system call, thus it never
returns control to its caller.
.PP
.VS
\fBTcl_Finalize\fR is similar to \fBTcl_Exit\fR except that it does not
exit from the current process.
It is useful for cleaning up when a process is finished using \fBTcl\fR but
wishes to continue executing, and when \fBTcl\fR is used in a dynamically
loaded extension that is about to be unloaded.
On some systems \fBTcl\fR is automatically notified when it is being
unloaded, and it calls \fBTcl_Finalize\fR internally; on these systems it
not necessary for the caller to explicitly call \fBTcl_Finalize\fR.
However, to ensure portability, your code should always invoke
\fBTcl_Finalize\fR when \fBTcl\fR is being unloaded, to ensure that the
code will work on all platforms. \fBTcl_Finalize\fR can be safely called
more than once.
.VE
.PP
\fBTcl_CreateExitHandler\fR arranges for \fIproc\fR to be invoked
by \fBTcl_Finalize\fR and \fBTcl_Exit\fR.
This provides a hook for cleanup operations such as flushing buffers
and freeing global memory.
\fIProc\fR should match the type \fBTcl_ExitProc\fR:
.CS
typedef void Tcl_ExitProc(ClientData \fIclientData\fR);
.CE
The \fIclientData\fR parameter to \fIproc\fR is a
copy of the \fIclientData\fR argument given to
\fBTcl_CreateExitHandler\fR when the callback
was created.  Typically, \fIclientData\fR points to a data
structure containing application-specific information about
what to do in \fIproc\fR.
.PP
\fBTcl_DeleteExitHandler\fR may be called to delete a
previously-created exit handler.  It removes the handler
indicated by \fIproc\fR and \fIclientData\fR so that no call
to \fIproc\fR will be made.  If no such handler exists then
\fBTcl_DeleteExitHandler\fR does nothing.
.PP
.VS
.PP
\fBTcl_Finalize\fR and \fBTcl_Exit\fR execute all registered exit handlers,
in reverse order from the order in which they were registered.
This matches the natural order in which extensions are loaded and unloaded;
if extension \fBA\fR loads extension \fBB\fR, it usually
unloads \fBB\fR before it itself is unloaded.
If extension \fBA\fR registers its exit handlers before loading extension
\fBB\fR, this ensures that any exit handlers for \fBB\fR will be executed
before the exit handlers for \fBA\fR.
.VE

.SH KEYWORDS
callback, cleanup, dynamic loading, end application, exit, unloading