314. Is the stack unwound when terminate() is called?

Section: 17.9.5.4 [terminate] Status: NAD Submitter: Detlef Vollmann Opened: 2001-04-11 Last modified: 2016-01-28

Priority: Not Prioritized

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Discussion:

The standard appears to contradict itself about whether the stack is unwound when the implementation calls terminate().

From 18.7.3.3p2:

Calls the terminate_handler function in effect immediately after evaluating the throw-expression (lib.terminate.handler), if called by the implementation [...]

So the stack is guaranteed not to be unwound.

But from 15.3p9:

[...]whether or not the stack is unwound before this call to terminate() is implementation-defined (except.terminate).

And 15.5.1 actually defines that in most cases the stack is unwound.

Proposed resolution:

Rationale:

There is definitely no contradiction between the core and library clauses; nothing in the core clauses says that stack unwinding happens after terminate is called. 18.7.3.3p2 does not say anything about when terminate() is called; it merely specifies which terminate_handler is used.