Re: [boost] Re: Boost.Threads - thread_desc concept

From: Greg Colvin (gcolvin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-06-27 12:18:36

From: Peter Dimov <pdimov_at_[hidden]>
> From: "John Max Skaller" <skaller_at_[hidden]>
> 
> > Greg Colvin wrote:
> >
> > > Because killing threads is a bad idea.
> >
> > No, it isn't a 'bad idea'. It is essential
> > in many applications, in particular, it is essential
> > in most multithreaded servers to kill client connection
> > management threads when they're unable to detect that
> > the connection is lost or exceeded some bound
> > (such as 'out of money').
> >
> > A thread blocked waiting for input
> > cannot always detect such conditions (only an actual
> > input error). In such cases, cancellation is not
> > a bad idea, it is mandatory.
> 
> But does thread cancellation unwind the thread stack? If it does, how is
> this possible to implement without core language support?

IMO, it should unwind the stack, and I suspect that is not
possible without language support.  I took "killing" to
mean "terminate immediately, with no unwinding".