Chapter 32: Threads: Thread Cancellation

Typically, multiple threads execute in parallel, with each thread performing its task until it decides to terminate by calling pthread_exit() or returning from the thread’s start function.

Sometimes, it can be useful to cancel a thread; that is, to send it a request asking it to terminate now. This could be useful, for example, if a group of threads is performing a calculation, and one thread detects an error condition that requires the other threads to terminate. Alternatively, a GUI-driven application may provide a cancel button to allow the user to terminate a task that is being performed by a thread in the background; in this case, the main thread (controlling the GUI) needs to tell the background thread to terminate.

In this chapter, we describe the POSIX threads cancellation mechanism.

32 Threads: Thread Cancellation
32.1 Canceling a Thread
32.2 Cancellation State and Type
32.3 Cancellation Points
32.4 Testing for Thread Cancellation
32.5 Cleanup Handlers
32.6 Asynchronous Cancelability
32.7 Summary
32.8 Exercises