Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!wb1.cs.cmu.edu!avie
From: avie@wb1.cs.cmu.edu (Avadis Tevanian)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Killing a Cthread
Message-ID: <10108@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 4 Aug 90 06:51:07 GMT
References: <9989@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <1990Jul24.230238.12159@mcs.anl.gov>
Organization: NeXT, Inc.
Lines: 27

In article <1990Jul24.230238.12159@mcs.anl.gov> joerg@mcs.anl.gov (Joerg) writes:
>cthread_t killMe;
>
>thread_terminate(cthread_thread(killMe));

This will almost always not be the right thing to do.  The problem here is
that you end up terminating the thread out from under the C-Thread package
which is not a good thing.

Your best bet is to structure your application such that it can use 
cthread_exit.  It is true that this is sometimes difficult within the
confines of C-Threads.  C-Threads errs on the side of simplicity, but we
should probably add a cthread_terminate that can terminate other C-Threads.

I will point out that using such a call would also be very dangerous as
the cthread you are going to terminate could very well hold locks or other
type of important state.

One other thing about cthread_thread().  It does give you a mechanism to
figure out which Mach thread is underlying a specific C-Thread, but you must
be very careful when using Mach thread calls on this thread.  You may end up
changing things that will confuse the C-Threads package.
-- 
Avadis Tevanian, Jr.    (Avie)
Manager, System Software
NeXT, Inc.
avie@NeXT.COM