[maxlybbert]

I know three solutions for this:

* (Classic): use goto so that instead of returning directly, all branches jump to a cleanup label. This is tricky to do well, but possible.

* (Nonstandard): GCC offers a nonstandard function attribute to register a function as a destructor for this kind of thing. I'm sure they claim it was inspired by Scheme's dynamic-wind/dynamic-wind concept.

* (Memory pooling): Apache APR relies heavily on memory pools. One feature of APR's memory pools is the ability to register functions to run (in, I believe, non-deterministic order) on data when the pool is eventually destroyed.

[maxlybbert]

Aargh! I should look at nonstandard features that I don't use before I say they solve problems. GCC's construcotrs and destructors (outside of C++ code) are limited to globals and statics. Marking a function a constructor guarantees it's automatically called before main(), and marking a function a destructor guarantees it's automatically called after main() completes.