PTHREAD_DETACH(3)

NAME
pthread_detach - detach a thread

SYNOPSIS
#include <pthread.h>

int pthread_detach(pthread_t thread);

Compile and link with -pthread.

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.

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
 | Thread safety | MT-Safe

CONFORMING TO
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.

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.)

EXAMPLE
The following statement detaches the calling thread:

    pthread_detach(pthread_self());

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

COLOPHON
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