[Haskell-cafe] How does the RTS "know" about ExitCode

[Utku Demir]

I also didn't know that, so I looked at the source, and found out that GHC has a wrapper[1] around `main` which (besides a few other stuff) is responsible for catching exceptions including the ExitCode and figuring out the appropriate exit code. In order to actually exit the program, `shutdownHaskellAndExit` C function from RTS [2] is called from there which takes the exit code as a parameter.

This was good to know, thanks for the question!

Utku

[1]: https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/-/blob/ae11bdfd98a10266bfc7de9e16b500be220307ac/libraries/base/GHC/TopHandler.hs 
[2]: https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/-/blob/ae11bdfd98a10266bfc7de9e16b500be220307ac/rts/RtsStartup.c#L554


On Thu, Jul 16, 2020, at 12:05 AM, Georgi Lyubenov wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I'm wondering how values stored in ExitCode "get to" the RTS (i.e. actually make the program exit with the given number).
> 
> As far as I can tell ExitCode is used as an everyday normal-looking exception (which are defined entirely in "library code", by using the raise#/catch# primitives), without any direct link to the RTS. 
> 
> What am I missing?
> 
> ======
> Georgi
> _______________________________________________
> Haskell-Cafe mailing list
> To (un)subscribe, modify options or view archives go to:
> http://mail.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
> Only members subscribed via the mailman list are allowed to post.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/attachments/20200716/2a32b7eb/attachment.html>