| ActiveTcl User Guide |

## Tcl/Tk Documentation > TclCmd > exit

### Tcl/Tk Applications | Tcl Commands | Tk Commands | Tcl Library | Tk Library

### NAME

exit - End the application

### SYNOPSIS

exit ?returnCode?

### DESCRIPTION

Terminate the process, returning returnCode to the system as the exit status. If returnCode is not specified then it defaults to 0.

### EXAMPLE

Since non-zero exit codes are usually interpreted as error cases by the calling process, the exit command is an important part of signaling that something fatal has gone wrong. This code fragment is useful in scripts to act as a general problem trap:

    proc main {} {
        # ... put the real main code in here ...
    }

    if {[catch {main} msg options]} {
        puts stderr "unexpected script error: $msg"
        if {[info exist env(DEBUG)]} {
            puts stderr "---- BEGIN TRACE ----"
            puts stderr [dict get $options -errorinfo]
            puts stderr "---- END TRACE ----"
        }

        # Reserve code 1 for "expected" error exits...
        exit 2
    }

### SEE ALSO

exec

### KEYWORDS

exit, process
Copyright © 1995-1997 Roger E. Critchlow Jr. Copyright © 1993 The Regents of the University of California. Copyright © 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.