NAME

       Tcl_ConditionNotify,  Tcl_ConditionWait,  Tcl_ConditionFi­
       nalize, Tcl_GetThreadData, Tcl_MutexLock, Tcl_MutexUnlock,
       Tcl_MutexFinalize,  Tcl_CreateThread - Tcl thread support.


SYNOPSIS

       #include <tcl.h>

       void
       Tcl_ConditionNotify(condPtr)

       void
       Tcl_ConditionWait(condPtr, mutexPtr, timePtr)

       void
       Tcl_ConditionFinalize(condPtr)

       Void *
       Tcl_GetThreadData(keyPtr, size)

       void
       Tcl_MutexLock(mutexPtr)

       void
       Tcl_MutexUnlock(mutexPtr)

       void
       Tcl_MutexFinalize(mutexPtr)

       int
       Tcl_CreateThread(idPtr, threadProc, clientData, stackSize, flags)


ARGUMENTS

       Tcl_Condition       *condPtr  (in)      A condition  vari­
                                               able,  which  must
                                               be associated with
                                               a mutex lock.

       Tcl_Condition       *mutexPtr (in)      A mutex lock.

       Tcl_Time            *timePtr  (in)      A  time  limit  on
                                               the      condition
                                               wait.    NULL   to
                                               wait      forever.
                                               Note     that    a
                                               polling value of 0
                                               seconds    doesn't
                                               make much sense.

       Tcl_ThreadDataKey   *keyPtr   (in)      This identifies  a
                                               block   of  thread
                                               local     storage.

                                               static  and   pro­
                                               cess-wide,     yet
                                               each  thread  will
                                               end up associating
                                               a different  block
                                               of   storage  with
                                               this key.

       int                 *size     (in)      The  size  of  the
                                               thread local stor­
                                               age  block.   This
                                               amount  of data is
                                               allocated and ini­
                                               tialized  to  zero
                                               the   first   time
                                               each  thread calls
                                               Tcl_GetThreadData.

       Tcl_ThreadId        *idPtr    (out)     The  refered stor­
                                               age  will  contain
                                               the   id   of  the
                                               newly      created
                                               thread as returned
                                               by  the  operating
                                               system.

       Tcl_ThreadId        id        (in)      Id  of  the thread
                                               waited upon.

       Tcl_ThreadCreateProc          threadProc(in)
                                               This     procedure
                                               will  act  as  the
                                               main()   of    the
                                               newly      created
                                               thread. The speci­
                                               fied    clientData
                                               will be  its  sole
                                               argument.

       ClientData          clientData(in)      Arbitrary informa­
                                               tion.  Passed   as
                                               sole  argument  to
                                               the threadProc.

       int                 stackSize (in)      The  size  of  the
                                               stack given to the
                                               new thread.

       int                 flags     (in)      Bitmask containing
                                               flags allowing the
                                               caller  to  modify
                                               behaviour  of  the
                                               new thread.

                                               age   is  used  to
                                               place   the   exit
                                               code of the thread
                                               waited  upon  into
                                               it.
_________________________________________________________________


INTRODUCTION

       Beginning  with  the  8.1  release, the Tcl core is thread
       safe, which allows you  to  incorporate  Tcl  into  multi­
       threaded  applications  without  customizing the Tcl core.
       To enable Tcl multithreading support, you must include the
       --enable-threads  option  to  configure when you configure
       and compile your Tcl core.

       An important contstraint of the Tcl threads implementation
       is that only the thread that created a Tcl interpreter can
       use that interpreter.  In other  words,  multiple  threads
       can not access the same Tcl interpreter.  (However, as was
       the case in previous releases, a single thread can  safely
       create and use multiple interpreters.)

       Tcl  does  provide  Tcl_CreateThread for creating threads. |
       The caller can determine the size of the  stack  given  to |
       the  new  thread and modify the behaviour through the sup­ |
       plied flags. The value  TCL_THREAD_STACK_DEFAULT  for  the |
       stackSize  indicates that the default size as specified by |
       the operating system is to be used for the new thread.  As |
       for   the   flags,   currently   are   only   the   values |
       TCL_THREAD_NOFLAGS and  TCL_THREAD_JOINABLE  defined.  The |
       first  of  them invokes the default behaviour with no spe­ |
       cialities. Using the second value marks the new thread  as |
       joinable.  This means that another thread can wait for the |
       such marked thread to exit and join it.                    |

       Restrictions: On some  unix  systems  the  pthread-library |
       does  not  contain the functionality to specify the stack­ |
       size of a thread. The specified value for the stacksize is |
       ignored  on these systems. Both Windows and Macintosh cur­ |
       rently do not support joinable threads. This flag value is |
       therefore ignored on these platforms.

       Tcl does provide Tcl_ExitThread and Tcl_FinalizeThread for
       terminating threads and invoking optional per-thread  exit
       handlers.   See  the Tcl_Exit page for more information on
       these procedures.

       Tcl provides Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent and Tcl_ThreadAlert  for
       handling  event  queueing  in  multithreaded applications.
       See the Notifier manual page for more information on these
       procedures.

       In  this  release,  the  Tcl  language  itself provides no

       scripts  that  could spawn a Tcl interpreter in a separate
       thread).  If you need to add this feature  at  this  time,
       see  the  tclThreadTest.c file in the Tcl source distribu­
       tion for an experimental implementation of a Tcl  "Thread"
       package  implementing  thread creation and management com­
       mands at the script level.


DESCRIPTION

       A mutex is a lock that is used to  serialize  all  threads
       through  a  piece  of  code  by  calling Tcl_MutexLock and
       Tcl_MutexUnlock.  If one thread holds a mutex,  any  other
       thread calling Tcl_MutexLock will block until Tcl_MutexUn­
       lock is called.  A mutex can be destroyed after its use by |
       calling  Tcl_MutexFinalize.  The result of locking a mutex |
       twice from the same thread is undefined.   On  some  plat­ |
       forms  it  will  result in a deadlock.  The Tcl_MutexLock,
       Tcl_MutexUnlock  and  Tcl_MutexFinalize   procedures   are
       defined  as  empty  macros  if  not compiling with threads
       enabled.

       A condition variable is used as a signaling  mechanism:  a
       thread can lock a mutex and then wait on a condition vari­
       able with Tcl_ConditionWait.  This atomically releases the
       mutex  lock  and  blocks  the waiting thread until another
       thread calls Tcl_ConditionNotify.  The caller of  Tcl_Con­
       ditionNotify should have the associated mutex held by pre­
       viously calling Tcl_MutexLock, but this is  not  enforced.
       Notifying  the  condition  variable  unblocks  all threads
       waiting on the condition variable, but they do not proceed
       until  the  mutex  is  released with Tcl_MutexUnlock.  The
       implementation of  Tcl_ConditionWait  automatically  locks
       the mutex before returning.

       The  caller  of  Tcl_ConditionWait  should be prepared for
       spurious notifications by calling Tcl_ConditionWait within
       a while loop that tests some invariant.

       A  condition  variable  can  be destroyed after its use by |
       calling Tcl_ConditionFinalize.                             |

       The Tcl_ConditionNotify, Tcl_ConditionWait and  Tcl_Condi­ |
       tionFinalize procedures are defined as empty macros if not |
       compiling with threads enabled.

       The Tcl_GetThreadData call returns a pointer to a block of
       thread-private data.  Its argument is a key that is shared
       by all threads and a size for the block of  storage.   The
       storage  is automatically allocated and initialized to all
       zeros the first time each thread asks for it.  The storage
       is automatically deallocated by Tcl_FinalizeThread.

       All  of  these synchronization objects are self initializ­
       ing.  They are implemented as opaque pointers that  should
       be  NULL  upon first use.  The mutexes and condition vari­
       ables are either cleaned up by process exit  handlers  (if |
       living  that  long) or explicitly by calls to Tcl_MutexFi­ |
       nalize or Tcl_ConditionFinalize.  Thread local storage  is
       reclaimed during Tcl_FinalizeThread.


CREATING THREADS

       The  API  to create threads is not finalized at this time.
       There are private facilities to create threads  that  con­
       tain  a  new  Tcl  interpreter,  and to send scripts among
       threads.  Dive into tclThreadTest.c  and  tclThread.c  for
       examples.


SEE ALSO

       Tcl_GetCurrentThread,                Tcl_ThreadQueueEvent,
       Tcl_ThreadAlert,    Tcl_ExitThread,    Tcl_FinalizeThread,
       Tcl_CreateThreadExitHandler, Tcl_DeleteThreadExitHandler


KEYWORDS

       thread, mutex, condition variable, thread local storage


Man(1) output converted with man2html