Subj : Deadlock (pthread) in signal handler
To   : comp.programming.threads
From : szehau
Date : Thu Apr 28 2005 09:02 am

I understand that calling a async-signal-safe function in signal
handler can easily cause a deadlock.

In my program, in certain condition it need to call exit() in signal
handler. The exit() function will actually call other registered
cleanup functions from other library such as DB2. The program hangs
when receive a signal interrupt and goes into a race condition
(because of pthread try to acquire a mutex lock in malloc).

My question is: Is there any way that I can check whether the program
is currently hold a mutex lock (in malloc() or free())? I need this
detection to enable my program to retry on exit when there is no
active lock on the current process.

FYI, I'm using Linux, GCC 3.2, DB2 8.1.5

Thanks

.