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25 .\"
26 .TH PTHREAD_CREATE 3 2018-04-30 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
27 .SH NAME
28 pthread_create \- create a new thread
29 .SH SYNOPSIS
30 .nf
31 .B #include <pthread.h>
32 .PP
33 .BI "int pthread_create(pthread_t *" thread ", const pthread_attr_t *" attr ,
34 .BI " void *(*" start_routine ") (void *), void *" arg );
35 .fi
36 .PP
37 Compile and link with \fI\-pthread\fP.
38 .SH DESCRIPTION
39 The
40 .BR pthread_create ()
41 function starts a new thread in the calling process.
42 The new thread starts execution by invoking
43 .IR start_routine ();
44 .IR arg
45 is passed as the sole argument of
46 .IR start_routine ().
47 .PP
48 The new thread terminates in one of the following ways:
49 .IP * 2
50 It calls
51 .BR pthread_exit (3),
52 specifying an exit status value that is available to another thread
53 in the same process that calls
54 .BR pthread_join (3).
55 .IP *
56 It returns from
57 .IR start_routine ().
58 This is equivalent to calling
59 .BR pthread_exit (3)
60 with the value supplied in the
61 .I return
62 statement.
63 .IP *
64 It is canceled (see
65 .BR pthread_cancel (3)).
66 .IP *
67 Any of the threads in the process calls
68 .BR exit (3),
69 or the main thread performs a return from
70 .IR main ().
71 This causes the termination of all threads in the process.
72 .PP
73 The
74 .I attr
75 argument points to a
76 .I pthread_attr_t
77 structure whose contents are used at thread creation time to
78 determine attributes for the new thread;
79 this structure is initialized using
80 .BR pthread_attr_init (3)
81 and related functions.
82 If
83 .I attr
84 is NULL,
85 then the thread is created with default attributes.
86 .PP
87 Before returning, a successful call to
88 .BR pthread_create ()
89 stores the ID of the new thread in the buffer pointed to by
90 .IR thread ;
91 this identifier is used to refer to the thread
92 in subsequent calls to other pthreads functions.
93 .PP
94 The new thread inherits a copy of the creating thread's signal mask
95 .RB ( pthread_sigmask (3)).
96 The set of pending signals for the new thread is empty
97 .RB ( sigpending (2)).
98 The new thread does not inherit the creating thread's
99 alternate signal stack
100 .RB ( sigaltstack (2)).
101 .PP
102 The new thread inherits the calling thread's floating-point environment
103 .RB ( fenv (3)).
104 .PP
105 The initial value of the new thread's CPU-time clock is 0
106 (see
107 .BR pthread_getcpuclockid (3)).
108 .\" CLOCK_THREAD_CPUTIME_ID in clock_gettime(2)
109 .SS Linux-specific details
110 The new thread inherits copies of the calling thread's capability sets
111 (see
112 .BR capabilities (7))
113 and CPU affinity mask (see
114 .BR sched_setaffinity (2)).
115 .SH RETURN VALUE
116 On success,
117 .BR pthread_create ()
118 returns 0;
119 on error, it returns an error number, and the contents of
120 .IR *thread
121 are undefined.
122 .SH ERRORS
123 .TP
124 .B EAGAIN
125 Insufficient resources to create another thread.
126 .TP
127 .B EAGAIN
128 .\" NOTE! The following should match the description in fork(2)
129 A system-imposed limit on the number of threads was encountered.
130 There are a number of limits that may trigger this error: the
131 .BR RLIMIT_NPROC
132 soft resource limit (set via
133 .BR setrlimit (2)),
134 which limits the number of processes and threads for a real user ID,
135 was reached;
136 the kernel's system-wide limit on the number of processes and threads,
137 .IR /proc/sys/kernel/threads-max ,
138 was reached (see
139 .BR proc (5));
140 or the maximum number of PIDs,
141 .IR /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max ,
142 was reached (see
143 .BR proc (5)).
144 .TP
145 .B EINVAL
146 Invalid settings in
147 .IR attr .
148 .TP
149 .\" FIXME . Test the following
150 .B EPERM
151 No permission to set the scheduling policy and parameters specified in
152 .IR attr .
153 .SH ATTRIBUTES
154 For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
155 .BR attributes (7).
156 .TS
157 allbox;
158 lb lb lb
159 l l l.
160 Interface Attribute Value
161 T{
162 .BR pthread_create ()
163 T} Thread safety MT-Safe
164 .TE
165 .sp 1
166 .SH CONFORMING TO
167 POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.
168 .SH NOTES
169 See
170 .BR pthread_self (3)
171 for further information on the thread ID returned in
172 .IR *thread
173 by
174 .BR pthread_create ().
175 Unless real-time scheduling policies are being employed,
176 after a call to
177 .BR pthread_create (),
178 it is indeterminate which thread\(emthe caller or the new thread\(emwill
179 next execute.
180 .PP
181 A thread may either be
182 .I joinable
183 or
184 .IR detached .
185 If a thread is joinable, then another thread can call
186 .BR pthread_join (3)
187 to wait for the thread to terminate and fetch its exit status.
188 Only when a terminated joinable thread has been joined are
189 the last of its resources released back to the system.
190 When a detached thread terminates,
191 its resources are automatically released back to the system:
192 it is not possible to join with the thread in order to obtain
193 its exit status.
194 Making a thread detached is useful for some types of daemon threads
195 whose exit status the application does not need to care about.
196 By default, a new thread is created in a joinable state, unless
197 .I attr
198 was set to create the thread in a detached state (using
199 .BR pthread_attr_setdetachstate (3)).
200 .PP
201 Under the NPTL threading implementation, if the
202 .BR RLIMIT_STACK
203 soft resource limit
204 .IR "at the time the program started"
205 has any value other than "unlimited",
206 then it determines the default stack size of new threads.
207 Using
208 .BR pthread_attr_setstacksize (3),
209 the stack size attribute can be explicitly set in the
210 .I attr
211 argument used to create a thread,
212 in order to obtain a stack size other than the default.
213 If the
214 .BR RLIMIT_STACK
215 resource limit is set to "unlimited",
216 a per-architecture value is used for the stack size.
217 Here is the value for a few architectures:
218 .RS
219 .TS
220 allbox;
221 lb lb
222 l r.
223 Architecture Default stack size
224 i386 2 MB
225 IA-64 32 MB
226 PowerPC 4 MB
227 S/390 2 MB
228 Sparc-32 2 MB
229 Sparc-64 4 MB
230 x86_64 2 MB
231 .TE
232 .RE
233 .SH BUGS
234 In the obsolete LinuxThreads implementation,
235 each of the threads in a process has a different process ID.
236 This is in violation of the POSIX threads specification,
237 and is the source of many other nonconformances to the standard; see
238 .BR pthreads (7).
239 .SH EXAMPLE
240 The program below demonstrates the use of
241 .BR pthread_create (),
242 as well as a number of other functions in the pthreads API.
243 .PP
244 In the following run,
245 on a system providing the NPTL threading implementation,
246 the stack size defaults to the value given by the
247 "stack size" resource limit:
248 .PP
249 .in +4n
250 .EX
251 .RB "$" " ulimit \-s"
252 8192 # The stack size limit is 8 MB (0x800000 bytes)
253 .RB "$" " ./a.out hola salut servus"
254 Thread 1: top of stack near 0xb7dd03b8; argv_string=hola
255 Thread 2: top of stack near 0xb75cf3b8; argv_string=salut
256 Thread 3: top of stack near 0xb6dce3b8; argv_string=servus
257 Joined with thread 1; returned value was HOLA
258 Joined with thread 2; returned value was SALUT
259 Joined with thread 3; returned value was SERVUS
260 .EE
261 .in
262 .PP
263 In the next run, the program explicitly sets a stack size of 1\ MB (using
264 .BR pthread_attr_setstacksize (3))
265 for the created threads:
266 .PP
267 .in +4n
268 .EX
269 .RB "$" " ./a.out \-s 0x100000 hola salut servus"
270 Thread 1: top of stack near 0xb7d723b8; argv_string=hola
271 Thread 2: top of stack near 0xb7c713b8; argv_string=salut
272 Thread 3: top of stack near 0xb7b703b8; argv_string=servus
273 Joined with thread 1; returned value was HOLA
274 Joined with thread 2; returned value was SALUT
275 Joined with thread 3; returned value was SERVUS
276 .EE
277 .in
278 .SS Program source
279 \&
280 .EX
281 #include <pthread.h>
282 #include <string.h>
283 #include <stdio.h>
284 #include <stdlib.h>
285 #include <unistd.h>
286 #include <errno.h>
287 #include <ctype.h>
288
289 #define handle_error_en(en, msg) \e
290 do { errno = en; perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)
291
292 #define handle_error(msg) \e
293 do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)
294
295 struct thread_info { /* Used as argument to thread_start() */
296 pthread_t thread_id; /* ID returned by pthread_create() */
297 int thread_num; /* Application\-defined thread # */
298 char *argv_string; /* From command\-line argument */
299 };
300
301 /* Thread start function: display address near top of our stack,
302 and return upper\-cased copy of argv_string */
303
304 static void *
305 thread_start(void *arg)
306 {
307 struct thread_info *tinfo = arg;
308 char *uargv, *p;
309
310 printf("Thread %d: top of stack near %p; argv_string=%s\en",
311 tinfo\->thread_num, &p, tinfo\->argv_string);
312
313 uargv = strdup(tinfo\->argv_string);
314 if (uargv == NULL)
315 handle_error("strdup");
316
317 for (p = uargv; *p != \(aq\e0\(aq; p++)
318 *p = toupper(*p);
319
320 return uargv;
321 }
322
323 int
324 main(int argc, char *argv[])
325 {
326 int s, tnum, opt, num_threads;
327 struct thread_info *tinfo;
328 pthread_attr_t attr;
329 int stack_size;
330 void *res;
331
332 /* The "\-s" option specifies a stack size for our threads */
333
334 stack_size = \-1;
335 while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "s:")) != \-1) {
336 switch (opt) {
337 case \(aqs\(aq:
338 stack_size = strtoul(optarg, NULL, 0);
339 break;
340
341 default:
342 fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [\-s stack-size] arg...\en",
343 argv[0]);
344 exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
345 }
346 }
347
348 num_threads = argc \- optind;
349
350 /* Initialize thread creation attributes */
351
352 s = pthread_attr_init(&attr);
353 if (s != 0)
354 handle_error_en(s, "pthread_attr_init");
355
356 if (stack_size > 0) {
357 s = pthread_attr_setstacksize(&attr, stack_size);
358 if (s != 0)
359 handle_error_en(s, "pthread_attr_setstacksize");
360 }
361
362 /* Allocate memory for pthread_create() arguments */
363
364 tinfo = calloc(num_threads, sizeof(struct thread_info));
365 if (tinfo == NULL)
366 handle_error("calloc");
367
368 /* Create one thread for each command\-line argument */
369
370 for (tnum = 0; tnum < num_threads; tnum++) {
371 tinfo[tnum].thread_num = tnum + 1;
372 tinfo[tnum].argv_string = argv[optind + tnum];
373
374 /* The pthread_create() call stores the thread ID into
375 corresponding element of tinfo[] */
376
377 s = pthread_create(&tinfo[tnum].thread_id, &attr,
378 &thread_start, &tinfo[tnum]);
379 if (s != 0)
380 handle_error_en(s, "pthread_create");
381 }
382
383 /* Destroy the thread attributes object, since it is no
384 longer needed */
385
386 s = pthread_attr_destroy(&attr);
387 if (s != 0)
388 handle_error_en(s, "pthread_attr_destroy");
389
390 /* Now join with each thread, and display its returned value */
391
392 for (tnum = 0; tnum < num_threads; tnum++) {
393 s = pthread_join(tinfo[tnum].thread_id, &res);
394 if (s != 0)
395 handle_error_en(s, "pthread_join");
396
397 printf("Joined with thread %d; returned value was %s\en",
398 tinfo[tnum].thread_num, (char *) res);
399 free(res); /* Free memory allocated by thread */
400 }
401
402 free(tinfo);
403 exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
404 }
405 .EE
406 .SH SEE ALSO
407 .ad l
408 .nh
409 .BR getrlimit (2),
410 .BR pthread_attr_init (3),
411 .BR pthread_cancel (3),
412 .BR pthread_detach (3),
413 .BR pthread_equal (3),
414 .BR pthread_exit (3),
415 .BR pthread_getattr_np (3),
416 .BR pthread_join (3),
417 .BR pthread_self (3),
418 .BR pthread_setattr_default_np (3),
419 .BR pthreads (7)