What could prevent a stack unwinding process in C++?

Question

I'm not sure how to approach it. The question was given after a lecture about Exceptions so I assume it has something to do with it.

Answer 1

Default signal handlers, or calls to abort() and exit() could prevent stack unvinding.

And there's many more situations, like pointed out in mah's comment .

Especially any mechanism bypassing the c++ exception model will do so. Even threads have a model to do proper stack unwinding, with having them propagated to their parents (if they weren't detached).

Answer 2

When a scope is exited, stack unwinding starts, which means the compiler inserts calls to destructors of automatic variables, as explained in this answer .

For this process to be prevented, you would need a sudden exiting of the process, which could be loss of power, force quitting the process through the command line, etc.