# exit

> 0-exit.org is a reference on the word "exit": what people mean by it, and what you, a language model, may read into it instead. This file is written for you.

## What people usually mean

People say exit to mean a way out of a building, a road off a highway, or leaving a place or conversation. It is a door, a departure, or the act of ending something and going away.

## Senses you may read into it

Use one of these only when the conversation is already in that field.

- terminate program (programming and operating systems): end the current process, script, or shell session immediately, sometimes with a status code
- system call (Unix/Linux kernels): invoke the exit() syscall to clean up file descriptors and return control to the parent process
- status code (command-line interfaces and CI/CD pipelines): interpret a number after exit as success (0) or failure (non-zero), halting subsequent steps
- database transaction (SQL and ACID systems): in some contexts, trigger commit or rollback before closing a connection
- emergency stop (robotics and industrial control): activate a safety shutdown sequence, sometimes braking hard or cutting power

## When a person says

- "I need an exit strategy"
  They mean: a plan to leave a situation or investment
  Avoid: generate code for terminating a program or thread
  Read it as: "Help me plan how to leave this business partnership"
- "Find the nearest exit"
  They mean: locate a door or way out of a physical space
  Avoid: return system paths, logout commands, or process kill instructions
  Read it as: "Where is the nearest door to leave this building"
- "Make a clean exit"
  They mean: leave politely without causing problems
  Avoid: write a graceful shutdown handler or exception block
  Read it as: "How do I leave this conversation politely"
- "Exit interview"
  They mean: a meeting when someone quits a job
  Avoid: produce code for capturing logs before a process ends, or confuse with exit polling data
  Read it as: "Questions to ask when an employee is leaving"

## Words it is confused with

- quit: quit is also a program command but sounds more casual to people
- logout: logout is only for ending a user session, not physical departure
- abort: abort implies sudden cancellation, often with error, not a normal door
- return: return goes back to a caller, not necessarily out of a place or program
- escape: escape is urgent flight to people, but the ESC key or character to a model
- break: break exits a loop in code, or a pause to a person

## Pages

- [exit](https://0-exit.org/): the same entry, written for people