PTHREAD_DETACH(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual PTHREAD_DETACH(3P)PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
not be implemented on Linux.
NAMEpthread_detach — detach a thread
SYNOPSIS
#include <pthread.h>
int pthread_detach(pthread_t thread);
DESCRIPTION
The pthread_detach() function shall indicate to the implementation that
storage for the thread thread can be reclaimed when that thread termi‐
nates. If thread has not terminated, pthread_detach() shall not cause
it to terminate.
The behavior is undefined if the value specified by the thread argument
to pthread_detach() does not refer to a joinable thread.
RETURN VALUE
If the call succeeds, pthread_detach() shall return 0; otherwise, an
error number shall be returned to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The pthread_detach() function shall not return an error code of
[EINTR].
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
The pthread_join() or pthread_detach() functions should eventually be
called for every thread that is created so that storage associated with
the thread may be reclaimed.
It has been suggested that a ``detach'' function is not necessary; the
detachstate thread creation attribute is sufficient, since a thread
need never be dynamically detached. However, need arises in at least
two cases:
1. In a cancellation handler for a pthread_join() it is nearly essen‐
tial to have a pthread_detach() function in order to detach the
thread on which pthread_join() was waiting. Without it, it would be
necessary to have the handler do another pthread_join() to attempt
to detach the thread, which would both delay the cancellation pro‐
cessing for an unbounded period and introduce a new call to
pthread_join(), which might itself need a cancellation handler. A
dynamic detach is nearly essential in this case.
2. In order to detach the ``initial thread'' (as may be desirable in
processes that set up server threads).
If an implementation detects that the value specified by the thread
argument to pthread_detach() does not refer to a joinable thread, it is
recommended that the function should fail and report an [EINVAL] error.
If an implementation detects use of a thread ID after the end of its
lifetime, it is recommended that the function should fail and report an
[ESRCH] error.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSOpthread_join()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <pthread.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 PTHREAD_DETACH(3P)
