PTHREAD_KILL(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual PTHREAD_KILL(3P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the correspond-
ing Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
pthread_kill -- send a signal to a thread
SYNOPSIS
#include <signal.h>
int pthread_kill(pthread_t thread, int sig);
DESCRIPTION
The pthread_kill() function shall request that a signal be delivered to the specified thread.
As in kill(), if sig is zero, error checking shall be performed but no signal shall actually be sent.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, the function shall return a value of zero. Otherwise, the function shall return an error number. If the
pthread_kill() function fails, no signal shall be sent.
ERRORS
The pthread_kill() function shall fail if:
EINVAL The value of the sig argument is an invalid or unsupported signal number.
The pthread_kill() function shall not return an error code of [EINTR].
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
The pthread_kill() function provides a mechanism for asynchronously directing a signal at a thread in the calling process. This could be
used, for example, by one thread to affect broadcast delivery of a signal to a set of threads.
Note that pthread_kill() only causes the signal to be handled in the context of the given thread; the signal action (termination or stop-
ping) affects the process as a whole.
RATIONALE
If an implementation detects use of a thread ID after the end of its lifetime, it is recommended that the function should fail and report
an [ESRCH] error.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
kill(), pthread_self(), raise()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, <signal.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technol-
ogy -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Stan-
dard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE
/The Open Group 2013 PTHREAD_KILL(3P)