Stack Unwinding

Definitions

1. The process by which the runtime walks back up the call stack after an exception is thrown (or a panic occurs), calling destructors for all local objects in each frame to ensure proper cleanup before control reaches a matching catch block or terminates the program. In C++, unwinding guarantees RAII cleanup; Rust panics unwind by default but can be configured to abort instead.

   In plain English: The process of backing out of nested function calls after an error, cleaning up resources in each one along the way.

   Example: "The crash happens during stack unwinding — a destructor throws a second exception, and in C++ that's instant std::terminate."

Related Terms

• Smart Pointer
• Memory Order
• Monomorphization
• Newtype
• Resource Acquisition Is Initialization
• Rust Borrow Checker
• Rust Unsafe
• Virtual Method Table
• Waker
• Weak Pointer