pthread_key_delete(3p) — Linux manual page

PROLOG | NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | EXAMPLES | APPLICATION USAGE | RATIONALE | FUTURE DIRECTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT

PTHREAD_KEY_DELETE(3P)  POSIX Programmer's Manual  PTHREAD_KEY_DELETE(3P)

PROLOG         top

       This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The
       Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
       corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or
       the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME         top

       pthread_key_delete — thread-specific data key deletion

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <pthread.h>

       int pthread_key_delete(pthread_key_t key);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The pthread_key_delete() function shall delete a thread-specific
       data key previously returned by pthread_key_create().  The thread-
       specific data values associated with key need not be NULL at the
       time pthread_key_delete() is called. It is the responsibility of
       the application to free any application storage or perform any
       cleanup actions for data structures related to the deleted key or
       associated thread-specific data in any threads; this cleanup can
       be done either before or after pthread_key_delete() is called. Any
       attempt to use key following the call to pthread_key_delete()
       results in undefined behavior.

       The pthread_key_delete() function shall be callable from within
       destructor functions. No destructor functions shall be invoked by
       pthread_key_delete().  Any destructor function that may have been
       associated with key shall no longer be called upon thread exit.

RETURN VALUE         top

       If successful, the pthread_key_delete() function shall return
       zero; otherwise, an error number shall be returned to indicate the
       error.

ERRORS         top

       The pthread_key_delete() function shall not return an error code
       of [EINTR].

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES         top

       None.

APPLICATION USAGE         top

       None.

RATIONALE         top

       A thread-specific data key deletion function has been included in
       order to allow the resources associated with an unused thread-
       specific data key to be freed. Unused thread-specific data keys
       can arise, among other scenarios, when a dynamically loaded module
       that allocated a key is unloaded.

       Conforming applications are responsible for performing any cleanup
       actions needed for data structures associated with the key to be
       deleted, including data referenced by thread-specific data values.
       No such cleanup is done by pthread_key_delete().  In particular,
       destructor functions are not called. There are several reasons for
       this division of responsibility:

        1. The associated destructor functions used to free thread-
           specific data at thread exit time are only guaranteed to work
           correctly when called in the thread that allocated the thread-
           specific data. (Destructors themselves may utilize thread-
           specific data.) Thus, they cannot be used to free thread-
           specific data in other threads at key deletion time.
           Attempting to have them called by other threads at key
           deletion time would require other threads to be asynchronously
           interrupted. But since interrupted threads could be in an
           arbitrary state, including holding locks necessary for the
           destructor to run, this approach would fail. In general, there
           is no safe mechanism whereby an implementation could free
           thread-specific data at key deletion time.

        2. Even if there were a means of safely freeing thread-specific
           data associated with keys to be deleted, doing so would
           require that implementations be able to enumerate the threads
           with non-NULL data and potentially keep them from creating
           more thread-specific data while the key deletion is occurring.
           This special case could cause extra synchronization in the
           normal case, which would otherwise be unnecessary.

       For an application to know that it is safe to delete a key, it has
       to know that all the threads that might potentially ever use the
       key do not attempt to use it again. For example, it could know
       this if all the client threads have called a cleanup procedure
       declaring that they are through with the module that is being shut
       down, perhaps by setting a reference count to zero.

       If an implementation detects that the value specified by the key
       argument to pthread_key_delete() does not refer to a a key value
       obtained from pthread_key_create() or refers to a key that has
       been deleted with pthread_key_delete(), it is recommended that the
       function should fail and report an [EINVAL] error.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS         top

       None.

SEE ALSO         top

       pthread_key_create(3p)

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, pthread.h(0p)

COPYRIGHT         top

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
       form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information
       Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The
       Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright
       (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
       Inc and The Open Group.  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 Standard is the referee
       document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
       http://www.opengroup.org/unix/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                2017            PTHREAD_KEY_DELETE(3P)

Pages that refer to this page: pthread.h(0p)pthread_key_create(3p)