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man pages section 3: Basic Library Functions

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Updated: Wednesday, July 27, 2022
 
 

pthread_cancel(3C)

Name

pthread_cancel - cancel execution of a thread

Synopsis

#include <pthread.h>

int pthread_cancel(pthread_t target_thread);

Description

The pthread_cancel() function requests that target_thread be canceled.

By default, cancellation is deferred until target_thread reaches a cancellation point. See cancellation(7).

Cancellation cleanup handlers for target_thread are called when the cancellation is acted on. Upon return of the last cancellation cleanup handler, the thread-specific data destructor functions are called for target_thread. target_thread is terminated when the last destructor function returns.

A thread acting on a cancellation request runs with all signals blocked. All thread termination functions, including cancellation cleanup handlers and thread-specific data destructor functions, are called with all signals blocked.

The cancellation processing in target_thread runs asynchronously with respect to the calling thread returning from pthread_cancel().

Return Values

If successful, the pthread_cancel() function returns 0. Otherwise, an error number might be returned to indicate the error. It is not an error for the target thread to be a zombie thread.

Errors

The pthread_cancel() function may fail if:

ESRCH

No thread was found with an ID corresponding to that specified by the given thread ID, target_thread.

Attributes

See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE
ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Interface Stability
Committed
MT-Level
MT-Safe
Standard

See Also

pthread_cleanup_pop(3C), pthread_cleanup_push(3C), pthread_cond_timedwait(3C), pthread_cond_wait(3C), pthread_exit(3C), pthread_join(3C), pthread_setcancelstate(3C), pthread_setcanceltype(3C), pthread_testcancel(3C), setjmp(3C), attributes(7), cancellation(7), condition(7), standards(7)

Notes

See cancellation(7) for a discussion of cancellation concepts.