Question

I have error handling code like this:

if (ERROR) {
   NSLog(@"<some message>");
   exit(-1);
}

The message logged with NSLog doesn’t always appear in the console, presumably because exit() terminates the process without flushing NSLog’s buffers. How can I flush NSLog’s buffers myself?

Answer 1

Try the following:

if (ERROR) {
   NSLog(@"<some message>");
   fflush(stderr);
   exit(-1);
}

But you should not use exit in production code because Apple Human Interface Guidelines say it clearly:

Never quit an iOS application programmatically because people tend to interpret this as a crash. However, if external circumstances prevent your application from functioning as intended, you need to tell your users about the situation and explain what they can do about it. Depending on how severe the application malfunction is, you have two choices.