Is there a way to make newly-spawned threads inherit the values of ThreadStatic state (or something like it) on their parent threads? I would like to use this (or something like it) to implement "dynamically scoped" special variables that contain operation/task context information to use for tracking/logging, etc. Is this a reasonable approach, and can it be made to work?
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102answers:
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Q:
Inheriting ThreadStatic values to implement dynamic scoping in C#/.NET in multithreaded context
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A:
You can't "inherit" values. However, the new ThreadLocal<T> class for .NET 4 allows you to provide a Func<T> in the constructor, which can initialize the thread based on the parent's state. This would provide a reasonable workaround.
Reed Copsey
2010-01-21 02:08:32
Thanks, this is certainly interesting. But how would I allow the child to access the parent's state?
Max Strini
2010-01-21 02:41:08
You could use a lambda in the parent that provides access to the variable(s) in question that are required to initalize the ThreadLocal<T>. This uses a form of lazy initialization, so on first use, you'd get the current parent's state.
Reed Copsey
2010-01-21 16:44:47
this didn't do what I needed at the time for some reason I've forgotten, but it was nice to know about this anyway.
Max Strini
2010-04-22 20:08:46