NAME

       pthread_detach - detach a thread

SYNOPSIS

       #include <pthread.h>

       int pthread_detach(pthread_t thread);

       Compile and link with -pthread.

DESCRIPTION

       The  pthread_detach()  function marks the thread identified by thread as detached.  When a
       detached thread terminates, its resources are automatically released back  to  the  system
       without the need for another thread to join with the terminated thread.

       Attempting to detach an already detached thread results in unspecified behavior.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, pthread_detach() returns 0; on error, it returns an error number.

ERRORS

       EINVAL thread is not a joinable thread.

       ESRCH  No thread with the ID thread could be found.

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌─────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface        │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├─────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │pthread_detach() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └─────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

CONFORMING TO

       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES

       Once  a  thread  has  been  detached,  it  can't be joined with pthread_join(3) or be made
       joinable again.

       A new thread can be created in a detached state  using  pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3)  to
       set the detached attribute of the attr argument of pthread_create(3).

       The  detached  attribute  merely  determines  the  behavior  of the system when the thread
       terminates; it does not prevent the thread from being terminated if the process terminates
       using exit(3) (or equivalently, if the main thread returns).

       Either  pthread_join(3)  or  pthread_detach()  should  be  called  for each thread that an
       application creates, so that system resources for the thread can be released.   (But  note
       that the resources of all threads are freed when the process terminates.)

EXAMPLE

       The following statement detaches the calling thread:

           pthread_detach(pthread_self());

SEE ALSO

       pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3),   pthread_cancel(3),  pthread_create(3),  pthread_exit(3),
       pthread_join(3), pthreads(7)

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 4.04 of the Linux man-pages project.  A  description  of  the
       project,  information  about  reporting  bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be
       found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.