Re: [boost] Re: [boost.thread] Experimental alternative TLS implementation

From: Aaron W. LaFramboise (aaronrabiddog51_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-09-04 14:35:39

Tony Juricic wrote:
> While intentional TLS slot leak is not a big issue (one expects that OS will
> do proper cleanup on program exit) it may be confusing to the first-time
> reader who may have a hard time understanding the motivation for protecting
> programmers from some leaks, while leaving other leaks to the OS. Reference
> counting makes it quite clear to the reader what is intended by the code.

I think the issue is not only that a TLS slot will be leaked, but that
destructors associated with TSS data will not be called.  It is my
opinion (I am not sure that this is the general opinion) that a C++
thread library must provide some mechanism to allow thread-specific
destructors to be called automatically, in analogue to destructors
called at the end of a lexical scope, and at the end of a program execution.

In any case, I also think it is a reasonable ideal that all libraries
are able to completely clean up after themselves, omitting cleanup only
as an optional optimization, as this cleanup is generally valuable for
debugging and analysis purposes.

Aaron W. LaFramboise