[Boost-users] Boost.Thread contained within a class?

From: Joshua ChaitinPollak (jpollak_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-02-07 14:30:34

Hello,

I have a question about Boost.Thread. I am trying to create a class  
which upon instantiation creates a thread based upon itself, and then  
on destruction, stops the thread and cleans up after itself. A simple  
example is below. Is this possible, and if not, what alternatives do  
I have?

The reason for this is to create a single external API (actually  
defined in a base class), and still have a background thread (hidden  
from the API) which can share that object's internal member variables.

I'm looking to do something like this:

class my_handler {
public:
    boost::thread* background_thread;

   my_hander() : background_thread(NULL) {
     background_thread(*this);
   }

   ~my_hander() {
       if (background_thread != NULL) {
          running = false;
          background_thread.join();
     }

     operator()() {
        while(running) {
            // do something
        }
     }
};

-Thanks,
  Josh

-- 
Joshua ChaitinPollak
Software Engineer
Kiva Systems