Should I make sure to destroy SDL 2.0 objects (renderer, window, textures, etc.) before exiting the program?

Question

This tutorial on SDL 2.0 uses code that returns from main without first destroying any of the resource pointers:

int main(int argc, char** argv){
    if (SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_EVERYTHING) == -1){
        std::cout << SDL_GetError() << std::endl;
        return 1; 
    }

    window = SDL_CreateWindow("Lesson 2", SDL_WINDOWPOS_CENTERED, 
        SDL_WINDOWPOS_CENTERED, SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN);
    if (window == nullptr){
        std::cout << SDL_GetError() << std::endl;
        return 2; //this
    }
    renderer = SDL_CreateRenderer(window, -1, SDL_RENDERER_ACCELERATED 
        | SDL_RENDERER_PRESENTVSYNC);
    if (renderer == nullptr){
        std::cout << SDL_GetError() << std::endl;
        return 3; //and this too
    }

Should I tell my terminate function to DestroyRenderer, DestroyWindow, DestroyTexture, etc. before exiting?

Answer 1

Same question as 'should i free memory that i've allocated before quitting a program'. Yes, if there is no bugs in SDL/X11/GL/etc. finalize code - all will be freed anyway. But i see no reasons why you shouldn't want to do that yourself.

Of course if you crash rather then exit - there is a good chance some things wouldn't be done and e.g. you wouldn't return display to native desktop resolution.