c - return vs exit

return exits from the function while exit exits from the program.

In main function executing return 0; statement or calling exit(0) function will call the registered atexit handlers and will cause program termination.

source - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17383015/difference-between-return-0-and-exit-0

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• return is an instruction of the language that returns from a function call.
• exit is a system call (not a language statement) that terminates the current process.

The only case when both do the same thing is in the main() function, as a return from main performs an exit().

source - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3463551/what-is-the-difference-between-exit-and-return