.\" Copyright (c) 1996 John Birrell . .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by John Birrell. .\" 4. Neither the name of the author nor the names of any co-contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY JOHN BIRRELL AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $FreeBSD$ .\" .Dd March 15, 2014 .Dt PTHREAD_CREATE 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm pthread_create .Nd create a new thread .Sh SYNOPSIS .In pthread.h .Ft int .Fn pthread_create "pthread_t *thread" "const pthread_attr_t *attr" "void *(*start_routine)(void *)" "void *arg" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn pthread_create function is used to create a new thread, with attributes specified by .Fa attr , within a process. If .Fa attr is .Dv NULL , the default attributes are used. If the attributes specified by .Fa attr are modified later, the thread's attributes are not affected. Upon successful completion .Fn pthread_create will store the ID of the created thread in the location specified by .Fa thread . .Pp The thread is created executing .Fa start_routine with .Fa arg as its sole argument. If the .Fa start_routine returns, the effect is as if there was an implicit call to .Fn pthread_exit using the return value of .Fa start_routine as the exit status. Note that the thread in which .Fn main was originally invoked differs from this. When it returns from .Fn main , the effect is as if there was an implicit call to .Fn exit using the return value of .Fn main as the exit status. .Pp Upon thread exit the storage for the thread must be reclaimed by another thread via a call to .Fn pthread_join . Alternatively, .Fn pthread_detach may be called on the thread to indicate that the system may automatically reclaim the thread storage upon exit. The .Fn pthread_attr_setdetachstate function may be used on the .Fa attr argument passed to .Fn pthread_create in order to achieve the same effect as a call to .Fn pthread_detach on the newly created thread. .Pp The signal state of the new thread is initialized as: .Bl -bullet -offset indent .It The signal mask is inherited from the creating thread. .It The set of signals pending for the new thread is empty. .El .Sh RETURN VALUES If successful, the .Fn pthread_create function will return zero. Otherwise an error number will be returned to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS The .Fn pthread_create function will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EAGAIN The system lacked the necessary resources to create another thread, or the system-imposed limit on the total number of threads in a process [PTHREAD_THREADS_MAX] would be exceeded. .It Bq Er EPERM The caller does not have appropriate permission to set the required scheduling parameters or scheduling policy. .It Bq Er EINVAL The value specified by .Fa attr is invalid. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr fork 2 , .Xr pthread_attr 3 , .Xr pthread_cancel 3 , .Xr pthread_cleanup_pop 3 , .Xr pthread_cleanup_push 3 , .Xr pthread_exit 3 , .Xr pthread_join 3 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn pthread_create function conforms to .St -p1003.1-96 .