handler for normal termination?

BenHopkins has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Is there a sig vector that fires when a process terminates normally? I'm working on a module that (among other things) writes to a log file. The first time it's called, it opens the log file, but how can you tell when it's the last time?

I'd like to do something like $SIG{'TERM'} = \&clean_up;. In fact, I did exactly that, but it didn't work.

Is there another signal?

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Re: handler for normal termination? by almut (Canon) on Jun 23, 2007 at 01:55 UTC
Maybe you want an `END { ... }` block? (see perlmod for details)	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: handler for normal termination? by BenHopkins (Sexton) on Jun 23, 2007 at 05:07 UTC
That is it. It is a perl thing, not a unix thing. Thanks.	[reply]
Re: handler for normal termination? (END) by tye (Sage) on Jun 23, 2007 at 01:57 UTC
No, signals aren't sent for normal flow. `END { clean_up() }` [download] Note that you can use $? in an END handler to get a guess as to whether the script is ending "normally" or not. - tye	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: handler for normal termination? (END) by BenHopkins (Sexton) on Jun 23, 2007 at 05:10 UTC
C always cleaned up after termination using, I figured, a signal from UNIX on process termination. Silly me to think that behavior would be emulated. Anyhow, the END block works just fine. Thanks.	[reply]
Re^3: handler for normal termination? (END) by Joost (Canon) on Jun 23, 2007 at 09:24 UTC
C doesn't clean up much* by it self and when you need to do your own clean up handling you use end handers, which are not exactly signal handlers, just like perl. See the atexit() function in stdlib. * besides closing the file handles and freeing the memory, which are done by the kernel regardless of language. "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"	[reply]