In traditional PHP (Apache mod_php), exit/die terminates the request process. Under ZealPHP/OpenSwoole, exit/die would kill the entire worker. Code that previously used exit (e.g. after a redirect header) should throw HaltException instead. The framework catches it and treats it as a normal return — any output buffered before the halt is still captured and sent.

Extends \Error (a \Throwable that is NOT a \Exception), deliberately: the common Apache-migration idiom try { ... } catch (\Exception $e) { ... } would otherwise silently swallow the halt, letting execution fall through and double-emit the response (issue #194). To intercept a halt, catch it explicitly — catch (\ZealPHP\HaltException $e) or catch (\Throwable $e). The framework's halt-aware sites — App::executeFile() and ZealAPI::runHandlerWithContract() — catch it specifically and treat it as a clean halt.

As of ext-zealphp 0.3.48 (ext#47), a userland exit()/die() inside a coroutine is intercepted by the extension and thrown AS this class (instead of OpenSwoole's ExitException, which extends \Exception and was being swallowed by exactly that legacy idiom — converting normal redirects into 500s: FreshRSS, DokuWiki, CodeIgniter 4). The exit status rides $status: a string for exit("msg") (mod_php echoes it — the framework appends it to the body), an int for exit(3) (ints 100–599 become the HTTP status, matching the established ExitException mapping), null/0 for bare exit;.