<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="CONTENT-TYPE" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <TITLE>PTHREAD_DETACH(3) manual page</TITLE> <META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="OpenOffice.org 1.1.3 (Linux)"> <META NAME="CREATED" CONTENT="20050504;18010700"> <META NAME="CHANGED" CONTENT="20050518;2342300"> <!-- manual page source format generated by PolyglotMan v3.2, --> <!-- available at http://polyglotman.sourceforge.net/ --> </HEAD> <BODY LANG="en-GB" BGCOLOR="#ffffff" DIR="LTR"> <H4>POSIX Threads for Windows – REFERENCE - <A HREF="http://sources.redhat.com/pthreads-win32">Pthreads-w32</A></H4> <P><A HREF="index.html">Reference Index</A></P> <P><A HREF="#toc">Table of Contents</A></P> <H2><A HREF="#toc0" NAME="sect0">Name</A></H2> <P>pthread_detach - put a running thread in the detached state </P> <H2><A HREF="#toc1" NAME="sect1">Synopsis</A></H2> <P><B>#include <pthread.h></B> </P> <P><B>int pthread_detach(pthread_t </B><I>th</I><B>);</B> </P> <H2><A HREF="#toc2" NAME="sect2">Description</A></H2> <P><B>pthread_detach</B> puts the thread <I>th</I> in the detached state. This guarantees that the resources consumed by <I>th</I> will be freed immediately when <I>th</I> terminates. However, this prevents other threads from synchronizing on the termination of <I>th</I> using <B>pthread_join</B>. If, when <B>pthread_detach</B> is called, <I>th</I> has already terminated, all of <I>th</I>'s remaining resources will be freed.</P> <P>A thread can be created initially in the detached state, using the <B>detachstate</B> attribute to <A HREF="pthread_create.html"><B>pthread_create</B>(3)</A> . In contrast, <B>pthread_detach</B> applies to threads created in the joinable state, and which need to be put in the detached state later. </P> <P>After <B>pthread_detach</B> completes, subsequent attempts to perform <B>pthread_join</B> on <I>th</I> will fail. If another thread is already joining the thread <I>th</I> at the time <B>pthread_detach</B> is called, <I>th</I> will be detached and <B>pthread_join</B><SPAN STYLE="font-weight: medium"> will eventually return when <I>th</I> terminates but may not return with <I>th</I>'s correct return code.</SPAN> </P> <H2><A HREF="#toc3" NAME="sect3">Return Value</A></H2> <P>On success, 0 is returned. On error, a non-zero error code is returned. </P> <H2><A HREF="#toc4" NAME="sect4">Errors</A></H2> <DL> <DT><B>ESRCH</B> </DT><DD> No thread could be found corresponding to that specified by <I>th</I> </DD><DT> <B>EINVAL</B> </DT><DD STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.5cm"> the thread <I>th</I> is already in the detached state </DD></DL> <H2> <A HREF="#toc5" NAME="sect5">Author</A></H2> <P>Xavier Leroy <Xavier.Leroy@inria.fr> </P> <P>Modified by Ross Johnson for use with Pthreads-w32.</P> <H2><A HREF="#toc6" NAME="sect6">See Also</A></H2> <P><A HREF="pthread_create.html"><B>pthread_create</B>(3)</A> , <A HREF="pthread_join.html"><B>pthread_join</B>(3)</A> , <A HREF="pthread_attr_setdetachstate.html"><B>pthread_attr_setdetachstate</B>(3)</A> </P> <HR> <P><A NAME="toc"></A><B>Table of Contents</B></P> <UL> <LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><A HREF="#sect0" NAME="toc0">Name</A> </P> <LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><A HREF="#sect1" NAME="toc1">Synopsis</A> </P> <LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><A HREF="#sect2" NAME="toc2">Description</A> </P> <LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><A HREF="#sect3" NAME="toc3">Return Value</A> </P> <LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><A HREF="#sect4" NAME="toc4">Errors</A> </P> <LI><P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm"><A HREF="#sect5" NAME="toc5">Author</A> </P> <LI><P><A HREF="#sect6" NAME="toc6">See Also</A> </P> </UL> </BODY> </HTML>