NAME

pthread_detach - detach a thread

LIBRARY

POSIX threads library (libpthread, -lpthread)

SYNOPSIS

#include <pthread.h>
int pthread_detach(pthread_t thread);

DESCRIPTION

The pthread_detach() function marks the thread identified by thread as detached. When a detached thread terminates, its resources are automatically released back to the system without the need for another thread to join with the terminated thread.

Attempting to detach an already detached thread results in unspecified behavior.

RETURN VALUE

On success, pthread_detach() returns 0; on error, it returns an error number.

EXAMPLES

The following statement detaches the calling thread:

pthread_detach(pthread_self());

ERRORS

EINVAL

thread is not a joinable thread.

ESRCH

No thread with the ID thread could be found.

ATTRIBUTES

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

Interface Attribute Value

pthread_detach()

 Thread safety MT-Safe

STANDARDS

POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY

POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES

Once a thread has been detached, it can't be joined with pthread_join(3) or be made joinable again.

A new thread can be created in a detached state using pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3) to set the detached attribute of the attr argument of pthread_create(3).

The detached attribute merely determines the behavior of the system when the thread terminates; it does not prevent the thread from being terminated if the process terminates using exit(3) (or equivalently, if the main thread returns).

Either pthread_join(3) or pthread_detach() should be called for each thread that an application creates, so that system resources for the thread can be released. (But note that the resources of any threads for which one of these actions has not been done will be freed when the process terminates.)

SEE ALSO

pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3), pthread_cancel(3), pthread_create(3), pthread_exit(3), pthread_join(3), pthreads(7)