This routine terminates the calling thread and makes a status value (value_ptr) available to any thread that calls pthread_ join() and specifies the terminating thread. Any cleanup handlers that have been pushed and not yet popped from the stack are popped in the reverse order that they were pushed and then executed. After all cleanup handlers have been executed, appropriate destructor functions are called in an unspecified order if the thread has any thread-specific data. Thread termination does not release any application-visible process resources, including, but not limited to mutexes and file descriptors, nor does it perform any process-level cleanup actions, including, but not limited to calling any atexit() routine that may exist. The Threads Library issues an implicit call to pthread_exit() when a thread returns from the start routine that was used to create it. The Threads Library writes the function's return value as the return value in the thread's thread object. The process exits when the last running thread calls pthread_exit(). After a thread has terminated, the result of access to local (that is, explicitly or implicitly declared auto) variables of the thread is undefined. So, do not use references to local variables of the existing thread for the value_ptr argument of the pthread_exit() routine.