35c
Subj : Re: Killing threads
To   : comp.programming.threads
From : David Schwartz
Date : Tue Aug 16 2005 11:59 pm


"David Hopwood" <david.nospam.hopwood@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:NcwMe.13006$0u2.11716@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

> There are any number of blocking system functions that can get hung for
> any number of reasons (because the POSIX API has not been systematically
> designed to allow all functionality to be accessed by calls that are
> non-blocking or support timeouts). So it isn't in general possible to
> avoid the possibility of a thread becoming hung -- but it is possible to
> avoid holding locks when calling functions that might hang, so that
> cancellation can be made reliable.

    There are very, very few functions that are cancellation safe that also 
can't be made non-blocking.

    DS

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