I really hesitate to ask this, because I don't want to "solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion" but I'm new to C and want to gain more insight into common patterns used in the language.

I recently heard some distaste for the goto command, but I've also recently found a decent use-case for it.

Code like this:

error = function_that_could_fail_1();
if (!error) {
    error = function_that_could_fail_2();
    if (!error) {
        error = function_that_could_fail_3();
        ...to the n-th tab level!
    } else {
        // deal with error, clean up, and return error code
    }
} else {
    // deal with error, clean up, and return error code
}

If the clean-up part is all very similar, could be written a little prettier (my opinion?) like this:

error = function_that_could_fail_1();
if(error) {
    goto cleanup;
}
error = function_that_could_fail_2();
if(error) {
    goto cleanup;
}
error = function_that_could_fail_3();
if(error) {
    goto cleanup;
}
...
cleanup:
// deal with error if it exists, clean up
// return error code

Is this a common or acceptable use-case of goto in C? Is there a different/better way to do this?

I really hesitate to ask this, because I don't want to "solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion" but I'm new to C and want to gain more insight into common patterns used in the language.

I recently heard some distaste for the goto command, but I've also recently found a decent use-case for it.

Code like this:

error = function_that_could_fail_1();
if (!error) {
    error = function_that_could_fail_2();
    if (!error) {
        error = function_that_could_fail_3();
        ...to the n-th tab level!
    } else {
        // deal with error, clean up, and return error code
    }
} else {
    // deal with error, clean up, and return error code
}

If the clean-up part is all very similar, could be written a little prettier (my opinion?) like this:

error = function_that_could_fail_1();
if(error) {
    goto cleanup;
}
error = function_that_could_fail_2();
if(error) {
    goto cleanup;
}
error = function_that_could_fail_3();
if(error) {
    goto cleanup;
}
...
cleanup:
// deal with error if it exists, clean up
// return error code

Is this a common or acceptable use-case of goto in C? Is there a different/better way to do this?