See code below. Is it by design that calling exit() (I know, it is not recommended) does not call the exit handler?

Background: because signals do not work on Windows, I created a thread that waits for a Windows event (Win32::Event). Our tests are scheduled in a parallel scheduler, but if a test exceeds its maximum running time, the scheduler signals (Unix, kill, Windows: event) the running test to terminate. Because the test need to cleanup test data, I have to do pre-exit cleanup. That information is stored in hash tables. These hash tables can be shared, but sharing multi-dimensional hash tables is somewhat cumbersome (and prone to programming errors).

Therefore, if the exit() call in the thread triggered the END exit handler, I could perform the cleanup work there, without having the need to share my data structure across a thread. But remember: using a thread + event is already a workaround. If signals will work, or if you know another method to stop a (hanging) test (can hang on waitpid() on a child, can hang on a long-term operation, whatever) but including at-exit cleanup work.

So the intention is that a signaled thread should abort any operation in the main thread and perform the cleanup code in the exit handler. Any suggestions are welcome.

use strict;
use threads;
use threads::shared;

my $inthread : shared;

END
{
    print "Exit handler called (inthread=$inthread)\n";
}

# the exit handler (END block) is never called when a thread performs 
+an exit()
# using a lower main sleep time will result in a normal exit of the ma
+in thread.
my $threadsleeptime : shared = 5;
my $mainsleeptime = 2;

my $thread = async {

    $inthread = 1;

    sleep($threadsleeptime);
    print "Sleep in thread finished\n";

    # force also main thread to exit
        # but bypasses exit handler in END block
    exit(1);
}

sleep($mainsleeptime);
print "Sleep in main finished\n";
$thread->join if ($thread);

print "End of main program\n";
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