David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:
At Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:01:40 +0100, Anthony Williams wrote:
Is pthread_cancel() still a no go to be used in threads::interrupt implementation?
pthread_cancel is no-go because it has different semantics and cannot be translated into an exception.
If you mean that its semantics are different because pthread_cancel is intended to be an unstoppable, non-ignorable command, but someone can always do a catch(...){}, I think that's silly (and I've made that clear to the Posix people—I'm not just picking on you). Even in the `C' world there's nothing to stop me from either a) disabling cancellation or b) doing something in a cancellation handler that never terminates (including re-trying whatever operation was cancelled).
In principle, I agree. pthread_cancel should be usable as the basis for, and interoperable with boost::thread::interrupt(). However, in practice it is not. I am not aware of any platforms where I can cleanly catch a cancellation from pthread_cancel and translate it into a boost::thread_interrupted exception. If I figure out a way, I'll gladly use it. Anthony -- Author of C++ Concurrency in Action http://www.stdthread.co.uk/book/ just::thread C++0x thread library http://www.stdthread.co.uk Just Software Solutions Ltd http://www.justsoftwaresolutions.co.uk 15 Carrallack Mews, St Just, Cornwall, TR19 7UL, UK. Company No. 5478976