What is an exit status in C?

An exit status in C is a value returned to the operating system upon the termination of a program. This value is used to convey whether the program executed successfully or encountered an error. By convention, a value of zero typically indicates that the program finished successfully, while a non-zero value signals that there was an issue during execution. This communication with the operating system is crucial for scripting and batch processing, where other processes may need to know if the prior program completed as expected or if it failed.

Understanding this concept is essential for error handling and debugging, allowing you to determine how a program has performed after it has completed its tasks. The exit status can thus be used in conditional checks in shell scripts or other programs that may rely on the output of the executed program.