Question

I have a problem about main threads and other threads in the same process. When the main function returns, do the other threads exit too? I am confused about this.

Consider the following test code:

void* test1(void *arg)
{
    unsigned int i = 0;
    while (1){
        i+=1;
    }
    return NULL;
}

void* test2(void *arg)
{
    long double i = 1.0;
    while (1){
        i *= 1.1;
    }
    return NULL;
}

void startThread ( void * (*run)(void*), void *arg) {
  pthread_t t;
  pthread_attr_t attr;
  if (pthread_attr_init(&attr) != 0
      || pthread_create(&t, &attr, run, arg) != 0
      || pthread_attr_destroy(&attr) != 0
      || pthread_detach(t) != 0) {
    printf("Unable to launch a thread\n");
    exit(1);
  }
}

int main()
{
    startThread(test1, NULL);
    startThread(test2, NULL);

    sleep(4);
    printf("main thread return.\n");

    return 0;
}

When the “main thread return.” prints out, thread test1 and test2 also exit， can anyone tell me why?

Answer 1

When the main thread returns (i.e., you return from the main function), it terminates the entire process. This includes all other threads. The same thing happens when you call exit. You can avoid this by calling pthread_exit.

The purpose of pthread_detach is to make it so you don’t need to join with other threads in order to release their resources. Detaching a thread does not make it exist past process termination, it will still be destroyed along with all the other threads.