<pthreads.h> Library

I learned about the <pthread.h> library. The purpose of this library is to create a function that will run independently of the main program. This is achieved by creating a thread, which will terminate under various conditions, including the execution of an exit function within the thread function or when the main function reaches the end of the program.

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The pthread_create() function is used to create a new thread.

• The first argument is a pointer to a pthread_t variable, which will be used to identify the thread in subsequent calls.

• The second argument is used to set the attributes of the thread.

• The third argument is a pointer to the function that will be executed by the thread.

• The fourth argument is a pointer to the argument that will be passed to the thread function.

• The function returns 0 if the thread is successfully created, otherwise it returns an error code.

The pthread_join() function is used to wait for a thread to terminate.

• The first argument is the thread to wait for.

• The second argument is a pointer to a pointer that will be used to return the value returned by the thread function.

• The function returns 0 if the thread is successfully joined, otherwise it returns an error code.

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Simple implementation of the pthread library:

#include <pthread.h>

void *myThread(void &value)
{
  // do something

  return NULL;
}

int main()
{
  pthread_t thread;

  pthread_create(&thread, NULL, &myThread, NULL);
  pthread_join(thread, NULL);

  return 0;
}

Here is the documentation for the pthread.h library