This routine ends an AST context which was begun with a matching invocation of AST_BEGIN. Any Object pointers created within this context will be annulled (just as if AST_ANNUL had been invoked) and will cease to be valid afterwards, unless they have previously been exported using AST_EXPORT or rendered exempt using AST_EXEMPT. If annulling a pointer causes an Object’ s RefCount attribute to fall to zero (which happens when the last pointer to it is annulled), then the Object will be deleted.

CALL AST_END( STATUS )

STATUS = INTEGER (Given and Returned)

Object

• This routine attempts to execute even if STATUS is set to an error value.

• Contexts delimited by AST_BEGIN and AST_END may be nested to any depth.