### 26.7 Program Termination ¶

The usual way for a program to terminate is simply for its `main` function to return. The exit status value returned from the `main` function is used to report information back to the process’s parent process or shell.

A program can also terminate normally by calling the `exit` function.

In addition, programs can be terminated by signals; this is discussed in more detail in Signal Handling. The `abort` function causes a signal that kills the program.