Re: [boost] Adding an option to set the name of a boost::thread

Subject: Re: [boost] Adding an option to set the name of a boost::thread
From: Vicente J. Botet Escriba (vicente.botet_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-11-07 15:33:42

Le 07/11/12 18:22, david.hagood_at_[hidden] a écrit :
>> This is exactly what I meant when I said "to associate the setting of the
>> name attribute to the thread_attributes class so that the implementation
>> can
>> set it at the start of the thread. "
>>
>> So that the setting can not be of the thread class as the thread will be
>> already started.
>>
> First, a silly question: where is thread::attributes documented? I looked
> at the boost.org pages on the thread library, but never found a good,
> concise reference for what the members of thread::attributes are.

Here is the reference documentation 
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_52_0/doc/html/thread/thread_management.html#thread.thread_management.thread.attributes
>
> Second: Just having a free function under this_thread to set the name in a
> portable fashion would be a start - at least prctl and the GLib functions
> can be called at any time to set the thread name. If there were a
>    void this_thread::set_name(std::string name)
> that would meet most of my needs.
This is an plausible alternative, but I guess that others will want to 
set the name at creation time, isn't it?
>
> (indeed - in times past I've used something like that to help debugging -
> change the "name" of the thread to indicate state as the thread operates,
> so you can easily see where a thread is in its operation just by using top
> or ps).
>
Good point. This could be useful as well.

As already I said, in a preceding post, a patch is welcome ;-)

Best,
Vicente