The main()
function is known as a user-defined function in C. But how does it differ from other user-defined functions?
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The main()
function is just a regular user-defined function — but it has two special properties:
- In a hosted implementation (the normal type), it is the function called by the start-up code.
- In C99 and later, if execution falls off the end of
main()
without an explicitreturn
statement, it is equivalent toreturn 0;
. No other function gets that privileged treatment.
See also What should main()
return in C and C++? for some caveats about the second point.
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