Question

As the heading goes, Is it possible for the main function return a pointer? If yes then where would be useful? Thanks!

Answer 1

Only a return type of int is blessed by the standard:

5.1.2.2.1 Program startup

1 The function called at program startup is named main. The implementation declares no
prototype for this function. It shall be defined with a return type of int and with no
parameters:

int main(void) { /* ... */ }

or with two parameters (referred to here as argc and argv, though any names may be
used, as they are local to the function in which they are declared):

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { /* ... */ }

or equivalent;10) or in some other implementation-defined manner.

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_{C11 draft, April 12, 2011}

Everything else is up to your compiler and therefore not a C-question anymore.