Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!paperboy!mirabeau.osf.fr!sp
From: sp@mirabeau.osf.fr (Simon Patience)
Newsgroups: comp.os.mach
Subject: Re: same task thread messaging and OSF/1 threads support
Keywords: threads OSF/1 C-Threads POSIX-Threads
Message-ID: <22323@paperboy.OSF.ORG>
Date: 29 May 91 12:25:26 GMT
References: <64360@bbn.BBN.COM> <1991May24.174732.6353@infonode.ingr.com>
Sender: news@OSF.ORG
Reply-To: sp@mirabeau.osf.fr (Simon Patience)
Organization: OSF Research Institute
Lines: 39

> >
> >To change the subject to OSF/1, are C threads considered part of the
"standard
> >Mach interface" in OSF/1, or is it strictly the POSIX Threads Extension
> >standard
> >that will be supported in OSF/1.
> >
> The version of OSF/1 which I am running, DEC's version, does not have
> C threads as a supported interface.  I hope that C threads will *not*
> be supported in OSF/1.  There are already too many different mechanisms
> for doing essentially the same thing...

I did try and post something before but it seems to have disappeared
into the ether. OSF/1 only provides the Posix pthread interfaces. In 1.0
that is the Draft 4 specification as draft 5 wasn't out. Future versions
of OSF/1 will follow the POSIX work.

The Cthreads library is neither supplied nor supported but if you got
the source from a Mach distribution and compiled it, I am pretty sure
that it would work. You wouldn't be able to use the reentrant libraries
with it though. While not technically imposible, you need header files
that are not shipped with the end user system, which define the
interface between the reentrant library and the thread provider, in
order to write the functions used to supply the synchronization the
library uses. The other problem is that crt0 does not call cthread_init
for you so you would have to do that youself as the first thing in main().

I believe that CMU are changing cthreads to export the pthread
interfaces eventually but I don't know that for certain and I certainly
wouldn't like to say when 'eventually' is. I will leave them to comment
on that.

Simon.

  Simon Patience
  Open Software Foundation			Phone: +33-76-63-48-72
  Research Institute				FAX:   +33-76-51-05-32
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