From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id KAA17327; Sun, 13 Oct 2002 10:55:02 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from concorde.inria.fr (concorde.inria.fr [192.93.2.39]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id KAA17042 for ; Sun, 13 Oct 2002 10:55:02 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mel-rto6.wanadoo.fr (smtp-out-6.wanadoo.fr [193.252.19.25]) by concorde.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id g9D8t1518100; Sun, 13 Oct 2002 10:55:01 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mel-rta9.wanadoo.fr (193.252.19.69) by mel-rto6.wanadoo.fr (6.5.007) id 3DA24D4D003493C9; Sun, 13 Oct 2002 10:55:00 +0200 Received: from iliana (80.14.240.235) by mel-rta9.wanadoo.fr (6.5.007) id 3DA24B29003518D9; Sun, 13 Oct 2002 10:55:00 +0200 Received: from luther by iliana with local (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 180eg4-0000Kn-00; Sun, 13 Oct 2002 11:04:48 +0200 Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 11:04:48 +0200 To: Xavier Leroy Cc: nadji@noos.fr, "caml-list@inria.fr" Subject: Re: [Caml-list] Native Threads Message-ID: <20021013090448.GA1277@iliana> References: <3DA01AAF.14FD242C@noos.fr> <20021013104353.G13771@pauillac.inria.fr> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20021013104353.G13771@pauillac.inria.fr> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i From: Sven LUTHER Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk On Sun, Oct 13, 2002 at 10:43:53AM +0200, Xavier Leroy wrote: > > I've just been playing with threads and I noticed at execution > > time that Thread.kill is not implemented by the posix-compiled > > version of the library. I used this flag because I thought that > > it would be faster (please correct me if I'm wrong), and there > > was no mention that Thread.kill would not be implemented. > > By looking at the sources, I learned that the reason is > > "problems with cleanup handlers on several platforms". > > That's fine with me, but I would like to compile my > > program :) > > The documentation should definitely be updated to mention that > Thread.kill is not only unavailable with system threads, but also > deprecated and definitely not advised. Why not remove it entirelly ? It is only confusing to have kill, but advice not to use it, and have it only working in some conditions (caml threads) ? > Being able to terminate any thread at any time, without cooperation > from the thread, is extremely dangerous: what if the killed thread was > holding mutexes? (I think this has been discussed recently on this > list.) For this reason, thread APIs either provide a low-level "kill" > operation and strongly adivse not to use it (Win32, Java), or they > provide a more controlled "cancellation" mechanism (POSIX) that is > slightly less risky, but doesn't (currently) map well to Caml threads. > > So: don't kill threads. Let them live a long and happy life :-) Well, the idea is to interactively kill threads that loop forever or something else such. I know you adviced me to have a the thread check each time if it can continue living, and stop if it is told not so, and this is what i will be doind, but what about having a thread function available in the thread library that does this in a somewhat standardized way ? Friendly, Sven Luther ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners