pthread_attr_init(3) — Linux manual page

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | ATTRIBUTES | STANDARDS | HISTORY | NOTES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

pthread_attr_init(3)    Library Functions Manual    pthread_attr_init(3)

NAME         top

       pthread_attr_init, pthread_attr_destroy - initialize and destroy
       thread attributes object

LIBRARY         top

       POSIX threads library (libpthread, -lpthread)

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <pthread.h>

       int pthread_attr_init(pthread_attr_t *attr);
       int pthread_attr_destroy(pthread_attr_t *attr);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The pthread_attr_init() function initializes the thread
       attributes object pointed to by attr with default attribute
       values.  After this call, individual attributes of the object can
       be set using various related functions (listed under SEE ALSO),
       and then the object can be used in one or more pthread_create(3)
       calls that create threads.

       Calling pthread_attr_init() on a thread attributes object that
       has already been initialized results in undefined behavior.

       When a thread attributes object is no longer required, it should
       be destroyed using the pthread_attr_destroy() function.
       Destroying a thread attributes object has no effect on threads
       that were created using that object.

       Once a thread attributes object has been destroyed, it can be
       reinitialized using pthread_attr_init().  Any other use of a
       destroyed thread attributes object has undefined results.

RETURN VALUE         top

       On success, these functions return 0; on error, they return a
       nonzero error number.

ERRORS         top

       POSIX.1 documents an ENOMEM error for pthread_attr_init(); on
       Linux these functions always succeed (but portable and future-
       proof applications should nevertheless handle a possible error
       return).

ATTRIBUTES         top

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).
       ┌─────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │ Interface                           Attribute     Value   │
       ├─────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │ pthread_attr_init(),                │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       │ pthread_attr_destroy()              │               │         │
       └─────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS         top

       POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY         top

       POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES         top

       The pthread_attr_t type should be treated as opaque: any access
       to the object other than via pthreads functions is nonportable
       and produces undefined results.

EXAMPLES         top

       The program below optionally makes use of pthread_attr_init() and
       various related functions to initialize a thread attributes
       object that is used to create a single thread.  Once created, the
       thread uses the pthread_getattr_np(3) function (a nonstandard GNU
       extension) to retrieve the thread's attributes, and then displays
       those attributes.

       If the program is run with no command-line argument, then it
       passes NULL as the attr argument of pthread_create(3), so that
       the thread is created with default attributes.  Running the
       program on Linux/x86-32 with the NPTL threading implementation,
       we see the following:

           $ ulimit -s       # No stack limit ==> default stack size is 2 MB
           unlimited
           $ ./a.out
           Thread attributes:
                   Detach state        = PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE
                   Scope               = PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM
                   Inherit scheduler   = PTHREAD_INHERIT_SCHED
                   Scheduling policy   = SCHED_OTHER
                   Scheduling priority = 0
                   Guard size          = 4096 bytes
                   Stack address       = 0x40196000
                   Stack size          = 0x201000 bytes

       When we supply a stack size as a command-line argument, the
       program initializes a thread attributes object, sets various
       attributes in that object, and passes a pointer to the object in
       the call to pthread_create(3).  Running the program on
       Linux/x86-32 with the NPTL threading implementation, we see the
       following:

           $ ./a.out 0x3000000
           posix_memalign() allocated at 0x40197000
           Thread attributes:
                   Detach state        = PTHREAD_CREATE_DETACHED
                   Scope               = PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM
                   Inherit scheduler   = PTHREAD_EXPLICIT_SCHED
                   Scheduling policy   = SCHED_OTHER
                   Scheduling priority = 0
                   Guard size          = 0 bytes
                   Stack address       = 0x40197000
                   Stack size          = 0x3000000 bytes

   Program source

       #define _GNU_SOURCE     /* To get pthread_getattr_np() declaration */
       #include <err.h>
       #include <errno.h>
       #include <pthread.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       static void
       display_pthread_attr(pthread_attr_t *attr, char *prefix)
       {
           int s, i;
           size_t v;
           void *stkaddr;
           struct sched_param sp;

           s = pthread_attr_getdetachstate(attr, &i);
           if (s != 0)
               errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_getdetachstate");
           printf("%sDetach state        = %s\n", prefix,
                  (i == PTHREAD_CREATE_DETACHED) ? "PTHREAD_CREATE_DETACHED" :
                  (i == PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE) ? "PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE" :
                  "???");

           s = pthread_attr_getscope(attr, &i);
           if (s != 0)
               errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_getscope");
           printf("%sScope               = %s\n", prefix,
                  (i == PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM)  ? "PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM" :
                  (i == PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS) ? "PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS" :
                  "???");

           s = pthread_attr_getinheritsched(attr, &i);
           if (s != 0)
               errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_getinheritsched");
           printf("%sInherit scheduler   = %s\n", prefix,
                  (i == PTHREAD_INHERIT_SCHED)  ? "PTHREAD_INHERIT_SCHED" :
                  (i == PTHREAD_EXPLICIT_SCHED) ? "PTHREAD_EXPLICIT_SCHED" :
                  "???");

           s = pthread_attr_getschedpolicy(attr, &i);
           if (s != 0)
               errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_getschedpolicy");
           printf("%sScheduling policy   = %s\n", prefix,
                  (i == SCHED_OTHER) ? "SCHED_OTHER" :
                  (i == SCHED_FIFO)  ? "SCHED_FIFO" :
                  (i == SCHED_RR)    ? "SCHED_RR" :
                  "???");

           s = pthread_attr_getschedparam(attr, &sp);
           if (s != 0)
               errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_getschedparam");
           printf("%sScheduling priority = %d\n", prefix, sp.sched_priority);

           s = pthread_attr_getguardsize(attr, &v);
           if (s != 0)
               errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_getguardsize");
           printf("%sGuard size          = %zu bytes\n", prefix, v);

           s = pthread_attr_getstack(attr, &stkaddr, &v);
           if (s != 0)
               errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_getstack");
           printf("%sStack address       = %p\n", prefix, stkaddr);
           printf("%sStack size          = %#zx bytes\n", prefix, v);
       }

       static void *
       thread_start(void *arg)
       {
           int s;
           pthread_attr_t gattr;

           /* pthread_getattr_np() is a non-standard GNU extension that
              retrieves the attributes of the thread specified in its
              first argument. */

           s = pthread_getattr_np(pthread_self(), &gattr);
           if (s != 0)
               errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_getattr_np");

           printf("Thread attributes:\n");
           display_pthread_attr(&gattr, "\t");

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);         /* Terminate all threads */
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           pthread_t thr;
           pthread_attr_t attr;
           pthread_attr_t *attrp;      /* NULL or &attr */
           int s;

           attrp = NULL;

           /* If a command-line argument was supplied, use it to set the
              stack-size attribute and set a few other thread attributes,
              and set attrp pointing to thread attributes object. */

           if (argc > 1) {
               size_t stack_size;
               void *sp;

               attrp = &attr;

               s = pthread_attr_init(&attr);
               if (s != 0)
                   errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_init");

               s = pthread_attr_setdetachstate(&attr, PTHREAD_CREATE_DETACHED);
               if (s != 0)
                   errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_setdetachstate");

               s = pthread_attr_setinheritsched(&attr, PTHREAD_EXPLICIT_SCHED);
               if (s != 0)
                   errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_setinheritsched");

               stack_size = strtoul(argv[1], NULL, 0);

               s = posix_memalign(&sp, sysconf(_SC_PAGESIZE), stack_size);
               if (s != 0)
                   errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "posix_memalign");

               printf("posix_memalign() allocated at %p\n", sp);

               s = pthread_attr_setstack(&attr, sp, stack_size);
               if (s != 0)
                   errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_setstack");
           }

           s = pthread_create(&thr, attrp, &thread_start, NULL);
           if (s != 0)
               errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_create");

           if (attrp != NULL) {
               s = pthread_attr_destroy(attrp);
               if (s != 0)
                   errc(EXIT_FAILURE, s, "pthread_attr_destroy");
           }

           pause();    /* Terminates when other thread calls exit() */
       }

SEE ALSO         top

       pthread_attr_setaffinity_np(3), pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3),
       pthread_attr_setguardsize(3), pthread_attr_setinheritsched(3),
       pthread_attr_setschedparam(3), pthread_attr_setschedpolicy(3),
       pthread_attr_setscope(3), pthread_attr_setsigmask_np(3),
       pthread_attr_setstack(3), pthread_attr_setstackaddr(3),
       pthread_attr_setstacksize(3), pthread_create(3),
       pthread_getattr_np(3), pthread_setattr_default_np(3), pthreads(7)

COLOPHON         top

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Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-06-15           pthread_attr_init(3)

Pages that refer to this page: pthread_attr_setaffinity_np(3)pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3)pthread_attr_setguardsize(3)pthread_attr_setinheritsched(3)pthread_attr_setschedparam(3)pthread_attr_setschedpolicy(3)pthread_attr_setscope(3)pthread_attr_setsigmask_np(3)pthread_attr_setstack(3)pthread_attr_setstackaddr(3)pthread_attr_setstacksize(3)pthread_create(3)pthread_getattr_default_np(3)pthread_getattr_np(3)pthread_setschedparam(3)pthread_setschedprio(3)sigevent(3type)pthreads(7)