pthread_exit() — Exit a thread

Standards

Standards / Extensions	C or C++	Dependencies
POSIX.4a Single UNIX Specification, Version 3	both	POSIX(ON)

Format

#define _OPEN_THREADS
#include <pthread.h>

void pthread_exit(void *status);

General description

Ends the calling thread and makes status available to any thread that calls pthread_join() with the ending thread's thread ID.

As part of pthread_exit() processing, cleanup and destructor routines may be run:

For details on the cleanup routines, refer to pthread_cleanup_pop() — Remove a cleanup handler and pthread_cleanup_push() — Establish a cleanup handler.
For details on the destructor routine, refer to pthread_key_create() — Create thread-specific data key.

Special behavior for C++: Destructors for automatic objects on the stack will be run when a thread is canceled. The stack is unwound and the destructors are run in reverse order.

Returned value

pthread_exit() cannot return to its caller.

There are no documented errno values. Use perror() or strerror() to determine the cause of the error.

Example

CELEBP30

/* CELEBP30 */
#define _OPEN_THREADS
#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

void *thread(void *arg) {
  char *ret;

  if ((ret = (char*) malloc(20)) == NULL) {
    perror("malloc() error");
    exit(2);
  }
  strcpy(ret, "This is a test");
  pthread_exit(ret);
}

main() {
  pthread_t thid;
  void *ret;

  if (pthread_create(&thid, NULL, thread, NULL) != 0) {
    perror("pthread_create() error");
    exit(1);
  }

  if (pthread_join(thid, &ret) != 0) {
    perror("pthread_create() error");
    exit(3);
  }

  printf("thread exited with '%s'\n", ret);
}

Output:

thread exited with 'This is a test'