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I'm trying to get a man-page for the return call in C programming language but nothing appropriate installed on my system(GNU/Linux Debian). Where should I look for documentation?

japan
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    It's not a system call it's a [language construct](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_statement). Look it up in your favorite C book, it is probably covered in the first few chapters. – user703016 Nov 26 '14 at 18:48
  • It is called a _return value_ – Ryan Nov 26 '14 at 18:49
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    @self um, rather a *return statement…* – The Paramagnetic Croissant Nov 26 '14 at 18:49
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    Any C reference will work. I recommend the [K&R C book](http://books.google.com/books/about/The_C_Programming_Language.html?id=161QAAAAMAAJ). – yellowantphil Nov 26 '14 at 18:49
  • BTW,what is so special about the `return` statement---never imagined anything special! – Am_I_Helpful Nov 26 '14 at 18:49
  • @shekharsuman For example in C++ `return` can create temporary objects, so yes it is not always straight forward. (and yes I know the OP asked for C) – Peter M Nov 26 '14 at 18:53
  • @PeterM-Same in Java too... – Am_I_Helpful Nov 26 '14 at 18:54
  • It is clear to me that is nothing special in the _return_ statement, but for the sake of curiosity I like to read man pages.. and was surprised that it was nothing about _return_ there.. _return_ takes a parameter and I think minimal description should be.. – japan Nov 26 '14 at 20:48
  • @PeterM, this is less commonly known, but in C this can happen, too. – Jens Gustedt Nov 26 '14 at 21:17
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    Man pages are for system/library calls. `return` is a language construct. What you are asking for is like asking far a man page for the plus (`+`) arithmetic operator. – DoxyLover Nov 26 '14 at 22:41

2 Answers2

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There is no "man page" because return is a C language keyword not a function; you cannot call return; it is simply an instruction to exit a function and return to the point after the call to that function.

Anyway, the documentation for return is in the language definition. Any documentation, reference or tutorial for C will explain it. For example http://en.cppreference.com/w/c/language/return.

Clifford
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You can find nice HTML and PDF versions of C89, C99, and C11 here:

http://port70.net/~nsz/c/

There is also GNU C Library:

http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/index.html

Herman Zvonimir Došilović
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