.\" Copyright 1992, Drew Eckhardt <drew@cs.colorado.edu>
.\" Copyright 1993, Ian Jackson <iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk>
.\" Copyright, the authors of the Linux man-pages project
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
.\"
.TH exit 2 2026-06-05 "Linux man-pages 6.19"
.SH NAME
exit \- terminate the calling thread
.SH LIBRARY
Standard C library
.RI ( libc ,\~ \-lc )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.BR "#include <sys/syscall.h>" "  /* Definition of " SYS_* " constants */"
.B #include <unistd.h>
.P
.BI "[[noreturn]] long\~syscall(SYS_exit, int\~" status );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR exit ()
terminates the calling thread.
.P
By contrast with
.BR _exit (3),
the
.BR exit ()
system call terminates only the calling thread, and actions such as
reparenting child processes or sending
.B SIGCHLD
to the parent process are performed only if this is
the last thread in the thread group.
.\" exit() is used by pthread_exit() to terminate the calling thread
.SH RETURN VALUE
.BR exit ()
does not return.
.SH STANDARDS
Linux.
.SH HISTORY
Linux.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR exit_group (2),
.BR _exit (3),
.BR exit (3),
.BR pthread_exit (3)