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Threads(3)		    Tcl Library Procedures		    Threads(3)

______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       Tcl_ConditionNotify, Tcl_ConditionWait, Tcl_ConditionFinalize, Tcl_Get‐
       ThreadData, Tcl_MutexLock, Tcl_MutexUnlock, Tcl_MutexFinalize, Tcl_Cre‐
       ateThread, Tcl_JoinThread - Tcl thread support.

SYNOPSIS
       #include <tcl.h>

       void
       Tcl_ConditionNotify(condPtr)

       void
       Tcl_ConditionWait(condPtr, mutexPtr, timePtr)

       void
       Tcl_ConditionFinalize(condPtr)

       Void *
       Tcl_GetThreadData(keyPtr, size)

       void
       Tcl_MutexLock(mutexPtr)

       void
       Tcl_MutexUnlock(mutexPtr)

       void
       Tcl_MutexFinalize(mutexPtr)

       int
       Tcl_CreateThread(idPtr, threadProc, clientData, stackSize, flags)

       int
       Tcl_JoinThread(id, result)

ARGUMENTS
       Tcl_Condition	   *condPtr  (in)      A   condition  variable,	 which
					       must be associated with a mutex
					       lock.

       Tcl_Mutex	   *mutexPtr (in)      A mutex lock.

       Tcl_Time		   *timePtr  (in)      A  time	limit on the condition
					       wait.  NULL  to	wait  forever.
					       Note  that a polling value of 0
					       seconds	 doesn't   make	  much
					       sense.

       Tcl_ThreadDataKey   *keyPtr   (in)      This   identifies  a  block  of
					       thread local storage.  The  key
					       should  be  static and process-
					       wide, yet each thread will  end
					       up   associating	  a  different
					       block of storage with this key.

       int		   *size     (in)      The size of  the	 thread	 local
					       storage	block.	This amount of
					       data is allocated and  initial‐
					       ized  to	 zero  the  first time
					       each  thread   calls   Tcl_Get‐
					       ThreadData.

       Tcl_ThreadId	   *idPtr    (out)     The  referred storage will con‐
					       tain the id of the  newly  cre‐
					       ated  thread as returned by the
					       operating system.

       Tcl_ThreadId	   id	     (in)      Id of the thread waited upon.

       Tcl_ThreadCreateProc	     threadProc(in)
					       This procedure will act as  the
					       main()  of  the	newly  created
					       thread. The  specified  client‐
					       Data will be its sole argument.

       ClientData	   clientData(in)      Arbitrary  information.	Passed
					       as sole argument to the thread‐
					       Proc.

       int		   stackSize (in)      The  size of the stack given to
					       the new thread.

       int		   flags     (in)      Bitmask containing flags allow‐
					       ing the caller to modify behav‐
					       iour of the new thread.

       int		   *result   (out)     The referred storage is used to
					       place  the  exit	 code  of  the
					       thread waited upon into it.
_________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION
       Beginning with the 8.1 release, the Tcl	core  is  thread  safe,	 which
       allows  you  to incorporate Tcl into multithreaded applications without
       customizing the Tcl core.  To enable Tcl	 multithreading	 support,  you
       must  include the --enable-threads option to configure when you config‐
       ure and compile your Tcl core.

       An important constraint of the Tcl threads implementation is that  only
       the thread that created a Tcl interpreter can use that interpreter.  In
       other words, multiple threads can not access the same Tcl  interpreter.
       (However,  as  was  the	case in previous releases, a single thread can
       safely create and use multiple interpreters.)

       Tcl does provide Tcl_CreateThread for creating threads. The caller  can │
       determine  the size of the stack given to the new thread and modify the │
       behaviour     through	 the	 supplied     flags.	 The	 value │
       TCL_THREAD_STACK_DEFAULT	 for  the stackSize indicates that the default │
       size as specified by the operating system is to be  used	 for  the  new │
       thread.	 As   for   the	  flags,   currently   are   only  the	values │
       TCL_THREAD_NOFLAGS and TCL_THREAD_JOINABLE defined. The first  of  them │
       invokes	the  default  behaviour	 with no specialties. Using the second │
       value marks the new thread as joinable. This means that another	thread │
       can wait for the such marked thread to exit and join it.		       │

       Restrictions: On some unix systems the pthread-library does not contain │
       the functionality to specify the stacksize of a thread.	The  specified │
       value  for  the stacksize is ignored on these systems. Both Windows and │
       Macintosh currently do not support joinable threads. This flag value is │
       therefore ignored on these platforms.

       Tcl  does provide Tcl_ExitThread and Tcl_FinalizeThread for terminating
       threads and  invoking  optional	per-thread  exit  handlers.   See  the
       Tcl_Exit page for more information on these procedures.

       The  Tcl_JoinThread  function is provided to allow threads to wait upon │
       the exit of another thread, which must have  been  marked  as  joinable │
       through	usage  of the TCL_THREAD_JOINABLE-flag during its creation via │
       Tcl_CreateThread.						       │

       Trying to wait for the exit of a non-joinable thread or a thread	 which │
       is  already waited upon will result in an error. Waiting for a joinable │
       thread which already exited is possible, the  system  will  retain  the │
       necessary  information  until  after  the call to Tcl_JoinThread.  This │
       means that not calling Tcl_JoinThread for a joinable thread will	 cause │
       a memory leak.

       Tcl  provides  Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent  and	 Tcl_ThreadAlert  for handling
       event queueing in multithreaded applications.  See the Notifier	manual
       page for more information on these procedures.

       In this release, the Tcl language itself provides no support for creat‐
       ing multithreaded scripts (for example, scripts that could spawn a  Tcl
       interpreter  in a separate thread).  If you need to add this feature at
       this time, see the tclThreadTest.c file in the Tcl source  distribution
       for an experimental implementation or use the Tcl "Threading Extension"
       package implementing thread creation and	 management  commands  at  the
       script level.

DESCRIPTION
       A mutex is a lock that is used to serialize all threads through a piece
       of code by calling Tcl_MutexLock and Tcl_MutexUnlock.   If  one	thread
       holds  a mutex, any other thread calling Tcl_MutexLock will block until
       Tcl_MutexUnlock is called.  A mutex can be destroyed after its  use  by │
       calling	Tcl_MutexFinalize.   The  result of locking a mutex twice from │
       the same thread is undefined.  On some platforms it will	 result	 in  a │
       deadlock.   The	Tcl_MutexLock,	Tcl_MutexUnlock	 and Tcl_MutexFinalize
       procedures are defined as empty macros if not  compiling	 with  threads
       enabled.	 For declaration of mutexes the TCL_DECLARE_MUTEX macro should
       be used.	 This macro assures correct mutex handling even when the  core
       is compiled without threads enabled.

       A  condition  variable  is  used as a signaling mechanism: a thread can
       lock a mutex and then wait on a condition variable with	Tcl_Condition‐
       Wait.   This  atomically releases the mutex lock and blocks the waiting
       thread until another thread calls Tcl_ConditionNotify.  The  caller  of
       Tcl_ConditionNotify should have the associated mutex held by previously
       calling Tcl_MutexLock, but this is not enforced.	 Notifying the	condi‐
       tion  variable  unblocks all threads waiting on the condition variable,
       but they do not proceed until the mutex is released  with  Tcl_MutexUn‐
       lock.   The implementation of Tcl_ConditionWait automatically locks the
       mutex before returning.

       The caller of Tcl_ConditionWait should be prepared for spurious notifi‐
       cations	by  calling  Tcl_ConditionWait	within a while loop that tests
       some invariant.

       A condition variable can be destroyed after its use by calling Tcl_Con‐ │
       ditionFinalize.							       │

       The  Tcl_ConditionNotify,  Tcl_ConditionWait  and Tcl_ConditionFinalize │
       procedures are defined as empty macros if not  compiling	 with  threads │
       enabled.

       The  Tcl_GetThreadData call returns a pointer to a block of thread-pri‐
       vate data.  Its argument is a key that is shared by all threads	and  a
       size  for the block of storage.	The storage is automatically allocated
       and initialized to all zeros the first time each thread	asks  for  it.
       The storage is automatically deallocated by Tcl_FinalizeThread.

INITIALIZATION
       All  of	these synchronization objects are self initializing.  They are
       implemented as opaque pointers that should be NULL upon first use.  The
       mutexes	and  condition variables are either cleaned up by process exit │
       handlers (if living that long) or explicitly by calls  to  Tcl_MutexFi‐ │
       nalize  or  Tcl_ConditionFinalize.   Thread  local storage is reclaimed
       during Tcl_FinalizeThread.

CREATING THREADS
       The API to create threads is not finalized at  this  time.   There  are
       private	facilities  to	create	threads	 that contain a new Tcl inter‐
       preter, and to send scripts among threads.  Dive	 into  tclThreadTest.c
       and tclThread.c for examples.

SEE ALSO
       Tcl_GetCurrentThread,  Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent, Tcl_ThreadAlert, Tcl_Exit‐
       Thread,	      Tcl_FinalizeThread,	  Tcl_CreateThreadExitHandler,
       Tcl_DeleteThreadExitHandler

KEYWORDS
       thread, mutex, condition variable, thread local storage

Tcl				      8.1			    Threads(3)
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