Re: [Boost-users] Is Boost Threads missing "pthread_cancel"-like Functionality?

From: Roland Schwarz (roland.schwarz_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-12-10 13:15:56

Raúl Huertas wrote:
> I am not sure if Boost.Threads is actively maintained,

Yes it is.

> so I don't know 
> when "at some point" is...

Altough I should know (I am one of the maintainers), honestly I don't.
The issue is notoriously hard to get at (especially on windows).
The issue is however actively discussed by the C++ standards group.

The main questions are about proper interaction with exceptions.

If you carefully rethink the need for cancellation you most likely will 
find that you really will need cancellation rarely. You almost always 
can use some other interthread communication mechanisms.

You also might take a look on my thread alerter which I have posted to 
the vault quite some time ago. This is written on top of Boost.Thread 
but does not implement cancellation. However you will be able to "wake 
up" a thread that is in some form of "waiting". Often this is what you 
really need. Full blown cancellation often is a too coarse grained tool 
anyways.

Roland