diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 39a2a8ecf..239d9d5cc 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+2023-10-09  Wolfgang Lux  <wolfgang.lux@gmail.com>
+
+	* Source/NSTask.m(launchAndReturnError:): Use _exit instead of
+	exit to terminate the vfork'ed process. This avoids running the
+	atexit handlers, which could have visible side effects in the
+	parent process.
+
 2023-10-08 Richard Frith-Macdonald <rfm@gnu.org>
 
 	* Source/NSPredicate.m: fixup for array access keywords
diff --git a/Source/NSTask.m b/Source/NSTask.m
index cc43df9c5..94c494d8f 100644
--- a/Source/NSTask.m
+++ b/Source/NSTask.m
@@ -1735,11 +1735,11 @@ - (BOOL) launchAndReturnError: (NSError **)error
 
       if (0 != chdir(path))
         {
-          exit(-1);
+          _exit(-1);
         }
 
       (void)execve(executable, (char**)args, (char**)envl);
-      exit(-1);
+      _exit(-1);
     }
   else
     {