What happens when I call exit() from my program?

My initial guess is wrong. I would have thought it would simply return from loop and the core library would just call loop() again. However, I see the following code was created. Noticing that __stop_program is a hard loop...

An extract of Blink.ino's listing, with exit(0) added:

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
  exit(0);
}

The disassembly of the above:

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(led, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
 100:   80 91 00 01     lds r24, 0x0100
 104:   61 e0           ldi r22, 0x01   ; 1
 106:   0e 94 ca 01     call    0x394   ; 0x394 <digitalWrite>
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
 10a:   68 ee           ldi r22, 0xE8   ; 232
 10c:   73 e0           ldi r23, 0x03   ; 3
 10e:   80 e0           ldi r24, 0x00   ; 0
 110:   90 e0           ldi r25, 0x00   ; 0
 112:   0e 94 f7 00     call    0x1ee   ; 0x1ee <delay>
  digitalWrite(led, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
 116:   80 91 00 01     lds r24, 0x0100
 11a:   60 e0           ldi r22, 0x00   ; 0
 11c:   0e 94 ca 01     call    0x394   ; 0x394 <digitalWrite>
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
 120:   68 ee           ldi r22, 0xE8   ; 232
 122:   73 e0           ldi r23, 0x03   ; 3
 124:   80 e0           ldi r24, 0x00   ; 0
 126:   90 e0           ldi r25, 0x00   ; 0
 128:   0e 94 f7 00     call    0x1ee   ; 0x1ee <delay>
  exit(0);
 12c:   80 e0           ldi r24, 0x00   ; 0
 12e:   90 e0           ldi r25, 0x00   ; 0
 130:   0e 94 1e 02     call    0x43c   ; 0x43c <_exit>

...

0000043c <_exit>:
 43c:   f8 94           cli

0000043e <__stop_program>:
 43e:   ff cf           rjmp    .-2         ; 0x43e <__stop_program>

Note that if _exit had not called cli, interrupts would be able to do stuff. But that is not the case.

Well I just tested it with my Arduino Uno and it just completely stopped the code and left all the outputs as they were when the code stopped running (so it left an LED I had on on). There seems to not be a IO cleanup when you call exit. This was what I expected because the Arduino IDE provides the setup and loop functions, if you program the ATMEGA*28 with with any other AVR IDE you start with the main function like all C/C++ programs. The setup and loop functions are not standard on AVR MCU's.

Note: The press of the reset button restarts the code, if you were wondering.