[boost] [thread] API for getting/setting thread name in Boost?

Subject: [boost] [thread] API for getting/setting thread name in Boost?
From: Bob Summerwill (bob_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-05-04 13:25:26

I've also been working with an external developer which is getting Ethereum
C++ working on Alpine Linux, as a statically linked executable using musl,
rather than glibc.

One rather confusing element was related to setting and getting thread
names, which is the process of working through this issue, I find appears
not to have made its way into either Boost or the C++11 standard library,
though it must be a very common cross-platform use-case.

https://github.com/ethereum/libweb3core/pull/73
https://github.com/ethereum/libweb3core/pull/73/files

I've just added this comment-block, while fixing the issue:

/// Set the current thread's log name.
///
/// It appears that there is not currently any cross-platform way of setting
/// thread names either in Boost or in the C++11 runtime libraries.   What is
/// more, the API for 'pthread_setname_np' is not even consistent across
/// platforms which implement it.
///
/// A proposal to add such functionality on the Boost mailing list, which
/// I assume never happened, but which I should follow-up and ask about.
/// http://boost.2283326.n4.nabble.com/Adding-an-option-to-set-the-name-of-a-boost-thread-td4638283.html
///
/// man page for 'pthread_setname_np', including this crucial snippet of
/// information ... "These functions are nonstandard GNU extensions."
/// http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/pthread_setname_np.3.html
///
/// Stack Overflow "Can I set the name of a thread in pthreads / linux?"
/// which includes useful information on the minor API differences between
/// Linux, BSD and OS X.
/// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2369738/can-i-set-the-name-of-a-thread-in-pthreads-linux/7989973#7989973
///
/// musl mailng list posting "pthread set name on MIPs" which includes the
/// information that musl doesn't currently implement 'pthread_setname_np'
/// https://marc.info/?l=musl&m=146171729013062&w=1
void setThreadName(std::string const& _n);

Would I be right in assuming that this never happened?

http://boost.2283326.n4.nabble.com/Adding-an-option-to-set-the-name-of-a-boost-thread-td4638283.html

If not, where can I log an issue to request that we revisit that?    From
what I can see, everybody is likely just cut-and-pasting much the same code
for this functionality.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10121560/stdthread-naming-your-thread

Cheers,
Bob Summerwill
-- 
bob_at_[hidden]