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Can I get C's pthread.h to compile in Windows?

Answer 1

+4 A:

This isn't so much C's pthread.h as Linux's pthread.h - it's a header for the Unix/Linux API for threads. So I'd say no.

The windows API is exposed via #include <windows.h> and is documented at http://msdn.microsoft.com and works differently to Linux's threading.

Edit: Although a quick google reveals: http://sourceware.org/pthreads-win32/ and I imagine cygwin would compile an app #including pthreads.h.

Ninefingers 2010-01-27 22:56:44

I did find pthreads-w32, but how do I get that to work with mingw(preferred) or cygwin?

naspinski 2010-01-27 23:13:38

There's a pre-compiled .lib file which you could build into your app like this: gcc -o app.exe file.o file2.o pthreads-win32.a (.a is deliberate, that's the convention they've used) having #included it (the header), or you could also link to the DLL which is also pre-built. Readme available at: ftp://sourceware.org/pub/pthreads-win32/dll-latest/README

Ninefingers 2010-01-27 23:21:12

Dlls are used like at the bottom of the page: http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/win/misc/mingw/dll.html i.e. gcc {c files} {dlls} -o app.name

Ninefingers 2010-01-27 23:25:42

don't use cygwin; pthreads works fine with MinGW; I never got thread-local storage to work, though: the compiler supports `__thread`, but someone else (linker? loader? library?) doesn't play nice...

Christoph 2010-01-27 23:29:24

@Christoph: how about pthread_key_create and friends?

Steve Jessop 2010-01-28 01:09:26

Answer 2

+7 A:

As @Ninefingers mentioned, pthreads are unix-only. Posix only, really.

That said, Microsoft does have a library that duplicates pthreads:

Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX Version 3.5

Library Download

Randolpho 2010-01-27 22:58:52

Ninefingers 2010-01-27 23:01:50

Excellent point. @naspinski: Remember... porting is difficult and fraught with peril. If you're writing new code, use win32. If porting, try to use SFU, but beware interactions; things could get ugly.

Randolpho 2010-01-27 23:04:22

Sorry, I forgot to mention I didn't want to use this library for just the reason you state, thank you.

naspinski 2010-01-27 23:14:13

Answer 3

A:

There are, as i recall, two distributions of the gnu toolchain for windows: mingw and cygwin.

I'd expect cygwin work - a lot of effort has been made to make that a "stadard" posix environment.

The mingw toolchain uses msvcrt.dll for its runtime and thus will probably expose msvcrt's "thread" api: _beginthread which is defined in <process.h>

Chris Becke 2010-01-27 23:09:43

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Can I get C's pthread.h to compile in Windows?

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