xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libpthread/pthread_testcancel.3 (revision 466a16a118933bd295a8a104f095714fadf9cf68)
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25.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libpthread/man/pthread_testcancel.3,v 1.9 2002/09/16 19:29:29 mini Exp $
26.Dd January 30, 2003
27.Dt PTHREAD_TESTCANCEL 3
28.Os
29.Sh NAME
30.Nm pthread_setcancelstate ,
31.Nm pthread_setcanceltype ,
32.Nm pthread_testcancel
33.Nd set cancelability state
34.Sh LIBRARY
35.Lb libpthread
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.In pthread.h
38.Ft int
39.Fn pthread_setcancelstate "int state" "int *oldstate"
40.Ft int
41.Fn pthread_setcanceltype "int type" "int *oldtype"
42.Ft void
43.Fn pthread_testcancel "void"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Fn pthread_setcancelstate
47function atomically both sets the calling thread's cancelability state
48to the indicated
49.Fa state
50and, if
51.Fa oldstate
52is not
53.Dv NULL ,
54returns the previous cancelability state at the location referenced by
55.Fa oldstate .
56Legal values for
57.Fa state
58are
59.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_ENABLE
60and
61.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE .
62.Pp
63The
64.Fn pthread_setcanceltype
65function atomically both sets the calling thread's cancelability type
66to the indicated
67.Fa type
68and, if
69.Fa oldtype
70is not
71.Dv NULL ,
72returns the previous cancelability type at the location referenced by
73.Fa oldtype .
74Legal values for
75.Fa type
76are
77.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_DEFERRED
78and
79.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_ASYNCHRONOUS .
80.Pp
81The cancelability state and type of any newly created threads, including the
82thread in which
83.Fn main
84was first invoked, are
85.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_ENABLE
86and
87.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_DEFERRED
88respectively.
89.Pp
90The
91.Fn pthread_testcancel
92function creates a cancellation point in the calling thread.
93The
94.Fn pthread_testcancel
95function has no effect if cancelability is disabled.
96.Ss Cancelability States
97The cancelability state of a thread determines the action taken upon
98receipt of a cancellation request.
99The thread may control cancellation in
100a number of ways.
101.Pp
102Each thread maintains its own
103.Dq cancelability state
104which may be encoded in two bits:
105.Bl -hang
106.It Em Cancelability Enable
107When cancelability is
108.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE ,
109cancellation requests against the target thread are held pending.
110.It Em Cancelability Type
111When cancelability is enabled and the cancelability type is
112.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_ASYNCHRONOUS ,
113new or pending cancellation requests may be acted upon at any time.
114When cancelability is enabled and the cancelability type is
115.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_DEFERRED ,
116cancellation requests are held pending until a cancellation point (see
117below) is reached.
118If cancelability is disabled, the setting of the
119cancelability type has no immediate effect as all cancellation requests
120are held pending; however, once cancelability is enabled again the new
121type will be in effect.
122.El
123.Ss Cancellation Points
124Cancellation points will occur when a thread is executing the following
125functions:
126.Fn accept ,
127.\".Fn aio_suspend ,
128.\".Fn clock_nanosleep ,
129.Fn close ,
130.Fn connect ,
131.Fn creat ,
132.Fn fcntl ,
133.Fn fsync ,
134.Fn fsync_range ,
135.\".Fn getmsg ,
136.\".Fn getpmsg ,
137.\".Fn lockf ,
138.\".Fn mq_receive ,
139.\".Fn mq_send ,
140.\".Fn mq_timedreceive ,
141.\".Fn mq_timedsend ,
142.Fn msgrcv ,
143.Fn msgsnd ,
144.Fn msync ,
145.Fn nanosleep ,
146.Fn open ,
147.Fn pause ,
148.Fn poll ,
149.Fn pread ,
150.Fn pselect ,
151.Fn pthread_cond_timedwait ,
152.Fn pthread_cond_wait ,
153.Fn pthread_join ,
154.Fn pthread_testcancel ,
155.\".Fn putmsg ,
156.\".Fn putpmsg ,
157.Fn pwrite ,
158.Fn read ,
159.Fn readv ,
160.Fn recv ,
161.Fn recvfrom ,
162.Fn recvmsg ,
163.Fn select ,
164.Fn sem_timedwait ,
165.Fn sem_wait ,
166.Fn send ,
167.Fn sendmsg ,
168.Fn sendto ,
169.Fn sigpause ,
170.Fn sigsuspend ,
171.Fn sigtimedwait ,
172.Fn sigwait ,
173.Fn sigwaitinfo ,
174.Fn sleep ,
175.Fn system ,
176.Fn tcdrain ,
177.Fn usleep ,
178.Fn wait ,
179.Fn waitid ,
180.Fn waitpid ,
181.Fn write ,
182and
183.Fn writev .
184.Sh RETURN VALUES
185If successful, the
186.Fn pthread_setcancelstate
187and
188.Fn pthread_setcanceltype
189functions will return zero.
190Otherwise, an error number shall be returned to
191indicate the error.
192.Pp
193The
194.Fn pthread_setcancelstate
195and
196.Fn pthread_setcanceltype
197functions are used to control the points at which a thread may be
198asynchronously canceled.
199For cancellation control to be usable in modular
200fashion, some rules must be followed.
201.Pp
202For purposes of this discussion, consider an object to be a generalization
203of a procedure.
204It is a set of procedures and global variables written as
205a unit and called by clients not known by the object.
206Objects may depend
207on other objects.
208.Pp
209First, cancelability should only be disabled on entry to an object, never
210explicitly enabled.
211On exit from an object, the cancelability state should
212always be restored to its value on entry to the object.
213.Pp
214This follows from a modularity argument: if the client of an object (or the
215client of an object that uses that object) has disabled cancelability, it is
216because the client doesn't want to have to worry about how to clean up if the
217thread is canceled while executing some sequence of actions.
218If an object
219is called in such a state and it enables cancelability and a cancellation
220request is pending for that thread, then the thread will be canceled,
221contrary to the wish of the client that disabled.
222.Pp
223Second, the cancelability type may be explicitly set to either
224.Em deferred
225or
226.Em asynchronous
227upon entry to an object.
228But as with the cancelability state, on exit from
229an object that cancelability type should always be restored to its value on
230entry to the object.
231.Pp
232Finally, only functions that are cancel-safe may be called from a thread that
233is asynchronously cancelable.
234.Sh ERRORS
235The function
236.Fn pthread_setcancelstate
237may fail with:
238.Bl -tag -width Er
239.It Bq Er EINVAL
240The specified state is not
241.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_ENABLE
242or
243.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE .
244.El
245.Pp
246The function
247.Fn pthread_setcanceltype
248may fail with:
249.Bl -tag -width Er
250.It Bq Er EINVAL
251The specified state is not
252.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_DEFERRED
253or
254.Dv PTHREAD_CANCEL_ASYNCHRONOUS .
255.El
256.Sh SEE ALSO
257.Xr pthread_cancel 3
258.Sh STANDARDS
259.Fn pthread_testcancel
260conforms to
261.St -p1003.1-96 .
262.Sh AUTHORS
263This man page was written by
264.An David Leonard Aq d@openbsd.org
265for the
266.Ox
267implementation of
268.Xr pthread_cancel 3 .
269