Google

logo top
Main Page   Widgets   Namespaces   Book  

Glib::Thread Class Reference
[Threads]

Represents a running thread. More...

List of all members.

Public Methods

bool joinable () const
 Returns whether the thread is joinable.

void join ()
 Waits until the thread finishes.

void set_priority (ThreadPriority priority)
 Changes the priority of the thread to priority.

ThreadPriority get_priority () const
 Returns the priority of the thread.

GThread* gobj ()
const GThread* gobj () const

Static Public Methods

Thread* create (const SigC::Slot0<void>& slot, bool joinable)
 Creates a new thread with the priority THREAD_PRIORITY_NORMAL.

Thread* create (const SigC::Slot0<void>& slot, unsigned long stack_size, bool joinable, bool bound, ThreadPriority priority)
 Creates a new thread with the priority priority.

Thread* self ()
 Returns the Thread* corresponding to the calling thread.

void yield ()
 Gives way to other threads waiting to be scheduled.


Related Functions

(Note that these are not member functions.)

Thread* wrap (GThread* gobject)


Detailed Description

Represents a running thread.

An instance of this class can only be obtained with create(), self(), or wrap(GThread*). It's not possible to delete a Thread object. If the thread is not joinable, its resources will be freed automatically when it exits. Otherwise, if the thread is joinable, you must call join() to avoid a memory leak.

Note:
g_thread_exit() is not wrapped, because that function exits a thread without any cleanup. That's especially dangerous in C++ code, since the destructors of automatic objects won't be invoked. Instead, you can throw a Thread::Exit exception, which will be caught by the internal thread entry function.

You might have noticed that the thread entry slot doesn't have the usual void* return value. If you want to return any data from your thread you can pass an additional output argument to the thread's entry slot.

Examples:

thread/thread.cc.


Member Function Documentation

Thread* Glib::Thread::create ( const SigC::Slot0<void>&    slot,
unsigned long    stack_size,
bool    joinable,
bool    bound,
ThreadPriority    priority
[static]
 

Creates a new thread with the priority priority.

The stack gets the size stack_size or the default value for the current platform, if stack_size is 0.

If joinable is true, you can wait for this thread's termination by calling join(). Otherwise the thread will just disappear, when ready. If bound is true, this thread will be scheduled in the system scope, otherwise the implementation is free to do scheduling in the process scope. The first variant is more expensive resource-wise, but generally faster. On some systems (e.g. Linux) all threads are bound.

The new thread executes the function or method slot points to. You can pass additional arguments using SigC::bind(). If the thread was created successfully, it is returned.

Note:
It is not guaranteed, that threads with different priorities really behave accordingly. On some systems (e.g. Linux) only root can increase priorities. On other systems (e.g. Solaris) there doesn't seem to be different scheduling for different priorities. All in all try to avoid being dependent on priorities. Use Glib::THREAD_PRIORITY_NORMAL here as a default.

Only use the extended create(const SigC::Slot0<void>&, unsigned long, bool, bool, ThreadPriority) function, when you really can't use the simple create(const SigC::Slot0<void>&, bool) instead. The latter overload does not take stack_size, bound and priority as arguments, as they should only be used for cases, where it is inevitable.

Parameters:
slot A slot to execute in the new thread.
stack_size A stack size for the new thread, or 0.
joinable Should this thread be joinable?
bound Should this thread be bound to a system thread?
priority A priority for the thread.
Returns:
The new Thread* on success.
Exceptions:
Glib::ThreadError 

Thread* Glib::Thread::create ( const SigC::Slot0<void>&    slot,
bool    joinable
[static]
 

Creates a new thread with the priority THREAD_PRIORITY_NORMAL.

If joinable is true, you can wait for this thread's termination by calling join(). Otherwise the thread will just disappear, when ready.

The new thread executes the function or method slot points to. You can pass additional arguments using SigC::bind(). If the thread was created successfully, it is returned, otherwise a ThreadError exception is thrown.

Parameters:
slot A slot to execute in the new thread.
joinable Should this thread be joinable?
Returns:
The new Thread* on success.
Exceptions:
Glib::ThreadError 
Examples:
thread/dispatcher.cc, and thread/thread.cc.

ThreadPriority Glib::Thread::get_priority (   const
 

Returns the priority of the thread.

Returns:
The thread's priority.

const GThread* Glib::Thread::gobj (   const [inline]
 

GThread* Glib::Thread::gobj (   [inline]
 

void Glib::Thread::join (  
 

Waits until the thread finishes.

Waits until the thread finishes, i.e. the slot, as given to create(), returns or g_thread_exit() is called by the thread. (Calling g_thread_exit() in a C++ program should be avoided.) All resources of the thread including the Glib::Thread object are released. The thread must have been created with joinable = true.

Examples:
thread/thread.cc.

bool Glib::Thread::joinable (   const
 

Returns whether the thread is joinable.

Returns:
Whether the thread is joinable.

Thread* Glib::Thread::self (   [static]
 

Returns the Thread* corresponding to the calling thread.

Returns:
The current thread.

void Glib::Thread::set_priority ( ThreadPriority    priority
 

Changes the priority of the thread to priority.

Note:
It is not guaranteed, that threads with different priorities really behave accordingly. On some systems (e.g. Linux) only root can increase priorities. On other systems (e.g. Solaris) there doesn't seem to be different scheduling for different priorities. All in all try to avoid being dependent on priorities.
Parameters:
priority A new priority for the thread.

void Glib::Thread::yield (   [static]
 

Gives way to other threads waiting to be scheduled.

This function is often used as a method to make busy wait less evil. But in most cases, you will encounter, there are better methods to do that. So in general you shouldn't use this function.


The documentation for this class was generated from the following file:
Generated for gtkmm by Doxygen 1.3-rc1 © 1997-2001