Chapter 29: Threads: Introduction

In this and the next few chapters, we describe POSIX threads, often known as Pthreads. We won't attempt to cover the entire Pthreads API, since it is rather large. Various sources of further information about threads are listed at the end of this chapter.

These chapters mainly describe the standard behavior specified for the Pthreads API. In Section 33.5, we discuss those points where the two main Linux threading implementations--LinuxThreads and Native POSIX Threads Library (NPTL)--deviate from the standard.

In this chapter, we provide an overview of the operation of threads, and then look at how threads are created and how they terminate. We conclude with a discussion of some factors that may influence the choice of a multithreaded approach versus a multiprocess approach when designing an application.

29 Threads: Introduction
29.1 Overview
29.2 Background Details of the Pthreads API
29.3 Thread Creation
29.4 Thread Termination
29.5 Thread IDs
29.6 Joining with a Terminated Thread: pthread_join()
29.7 Detaching a Thread: pthread_detach()
29.8 Thread Attributes
29.9 Threads Versus Processes
29.10 Summary
29.11 Exercises