Question

When I create a thread (pthread_create()) from my main process, I see three (3) threads in the ps listing, why is this? That is, I see the process for the main thread, one for the created thread, and third for something else. What is the something else? Everything works just fine, I’m just wondering what the extra listed process is.

~/ cat test.c
#include <errno.h>
#include <pthread.h>
static          pthread_t       thread;
void * test_thread(void * ptr)
{
    sleep(30);
    return(ptr);
}
void thread_init(void)
{
     if (pthread_create( &thread , NULL, test_thread, NULL))
          perror("Thread not created!");
}
int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
    thread_init();
    sleep(30);
}

When I execute this code on a system running Linux 2.6.14 and BusyBox (but using bash 2.04g), the ps listing I get after rebooting and launching my test program above:

...
   52 root            SW  [kswapd0]
  667 root            SW  [mtdblockd]
  710 root            SWN [jffs2_gcd_mtd4]
  759 root        980 S   /bin/sh
  760 root        500 S   /bin/inetd
  761 root        516 S   /bin/boa
  762 root        644 S   /sbin/syslogd -n
  763 root        640 S   /sbin/klogd -n
  766 root       1516 S   /bin/sshd -i
  767 root       1036 S   -sh
  768 root        420 S   ./test
  769 root        420 S   ./test
  770 root        420 S   ./test
  771 root        652 R   ps

The kernel is a 2.6.14 kernel with a few added drivers modules.

Answer 1

It is likely the “thread manager” thread. See answer D.5 at this link.

You won’t see the extra process listed on most modern Linux systems if they are using NPTL. But I searched and it sounds like BusyBox uses ulibc which I think only added NPTL support recently. So I don’t know for sure, but my guess is you are using LinuxThreads and seeing the manager thread as the extra thread.