setjmp

 

C

Language

headers

Type support

Dynamic memory management

Error handling

Program utilities

Variadic function support

Date and time utilities

Strings library

Algorithms

Numerics

Input/output support

Localization support

Thread support (C11)

Atomic operations (C11)

Technical Specifications

 

Program support utilities

Program termination
abort exit quick_exit (C11) _Exit (C99)	atexit at_quick_exit (C11) EXIT_SUCCESSEXIT_FAILURE
Communicating with the environment
system	getenvgetenv_s (C11)
Signals
signal raise sig_atomic_t	SIG_DFLSIG_IGN SIG_ERR
Signal types
SIGABRTSIGFPESIGILLSIGINTSIGSEGVSIGTERM
Non-local jumps
setjmp
longjmp
Types
jmp_buf

 

Defined in header <setjmp.h>
#define setjmp(env) /* implementation-defined */

Saves the current execution context into a variable env of type jmp_buf. This variable can later be used to restore the current execution context by longjmp function. That is, when a call to longjmp function is made, the execution continues at the particular call site that constructed the jmp_buf variable passed to longjmp. In that case setjmp returns the value passed to longjmp.

The invocation of setjmp must appear only in one of the following contexts:

• the entire controlling expression of a selection or iteration statement (if, switch, for, while, do-while)

switch(setjmp(env)) { ..

• one operand of a relational or equality operator with the other operand an integer constant expression, with the resulting expression being the entire controlling expression of a selection or iteration statement

if(setjmp(env) > 10) { ...

• the operand of a unary ! operator with the resulting expression being the entire controlling expression of a selection or iteration statement

while(!setjmp(env)) { ...

• the entire expression of an expression statement (possibly cast to void).

setjmp(env);

If setjmp appears in any other context, the behavior is undefined.

Upon return to the scope of setjmp, all accessible objects have the same values as they had when longjmp was executed, except for the non-volatile local variables in setjmp's scope, whose values are indeterminate.

Parameters

env

-

variable to save the execution state of the program to.

Return value

​0​ if the macro was called by the original code and the execution context was saved to env.

Non-zero value if a non-local jump was just performed. The return value in the same as passed to longjmp.

Example

Run this code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <setjmp.h>
#include <stdnoreturn.h>
 
jmp_buf jump_buffer;
 
noreturn void a(int count) 
{
    printf("a(%d) called\n", count);
    longjmp(jump_buffer, count+1); // will return count+1 out of setjmp
}
 
int main(void)
{
    volatile int count = 0; // local vars must be volatile
    if (setjmp(jump_buffer) != 9) // compare against constant in an if
        a(count++);
}

Output:

a(0) called
a(1) called
a(2) called
a(3) called
a(4) called
a(5) called
a(6) called
a(7) called
a(8) called

References

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.13.1.1 The setjmp macro (p: 262-263)

• C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

• 7.13.1.1 The setjmp macro (p: 243-244)

• C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

• 4.6.1 The setjmp macro

See also

longjmp	jumps to specified location (function)
C++ documentation for setjmp