Do I need to use os.Exit(0) when succefully terminanting an application in Go?

Question

I`ve recently discovered the os.Exit function on Go standard library, and I`ve seen it in some tutorials as well.

Since the Go`s func main() does not return any value, does it matter if I simply use return in the main() function isteand of os.Exit(0)?

I know os.Exit also ignores defers in Go code, but in this case I just want to know if there`s no difference for the OS between return and os.Exit(0).

Answer 1

the difference you described is correct, os.Exit(0) finishes the program immediately, ignoring any defers. With return your program will finish with default code 0.

test-exit$ cat main.go
> package main
> 
> func main() {
>   return
> }
test-exit$ go run main.go
test-exit$ echo $? // shows status code of last executed command
> 0

So outside the defer case there is basically no difference.