Re: [Boost-users] Re: Re: Re: thread::thread() in Windows

From: Roland Schwarz (roland.schwarz_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-12-12 14:09:55

Peter Dimov wrote:

>
> The demand for thread ID's come from the need to _identify_ the 
> thread. In POSIX terms, every operation that takes a pthread_t uses it 
> to identify the thread on which it is supposed to operate.
>
A quick grep over my header file revealed:

the first 5 usages are covered by boost thread
pthread_create (pthread_t * tid, ...     The ctor
pthread_detach (pthread_t tid);          The dtor
pthread_t pthread_self (void);            The default ctor
pthread_join (pthread_t thread, ...      The join function
pthread_equal (pthread_t t1,  pthread_t t2); The operator()==

The remaining are (not yet) supported by boost thread
pthread_cancel (pthread_t thread);
pthread_setschedparam (pthread_t thread, ...
pthread_getschedparam (pthread_t thread, ...
pthread_kill(pthread_t thread, int sig);

Do I miss some important usages of  pthread_t ?
To me it appears that the pthread_t type is simply
a C language idiom (kind of a handle). It appears to me as not
beeing any different than boost::thread* .
Please explain to me where I am wrong in my assumptions.

What I think is of more importance is to have a common access point to the
thread that can be accessed from inside the thread like a TLS variable,
while still be accessible from the outside by a mechansim using 
something like
a thread id as an index.

Of course to this end the thread must be indentifyable. But this is not 
sufficient
as I tried to point out. (And also I know of no current implementation 
of this.)

Can you point me please to some other usages of the thread ID beyond the
ones above?

Roland