Standard C has no exceptions. Goto is the typical way to handle errors without creating a hell mess of "hm, gotta close this file, free that buffer, blah blah"

Standard C has no exceptions. Goto is the typical way to handle errors without creating a hell mess of "hm, gotta close this file, free that buffer, blah blah" at every step where you might want to bail early. There are a few alternatives but none of them are better than goto and a few can be said to be worse.