Worker library

Multithreading can be very complicated in C, POSIX and Windows multithreading functions are not the same for instance. This library was made in order to palliate this issue and facilitate the use and creation of new threads in C.

How to install

Just drop worker.h and worker.c in your project and include worker.h using a relative path.

Sometimes you will need to add -pthread in gcc options (only if not on Windows).

Usage

worker()

WorkerId
worker(void *f, void *args, WorkerErr *err);

This function is used to start any functions as a new thread.

Parameters

f: the function that will be run as a new thread.
args: arguments to be passed to the given function.
err: the error code number, literally an unsigned long. It can be NULL but if not, see pthread_create POSIX information page for Linux or OSX and GetLastError() documentation for Windows.

Return value

It returns a WorkerId which is a pthread_t (pthread.h) on POSIX operating systems and a HANDLE (windows.h) on Windows. The returned value can be NULL if their is an error.

worker_wait()

WorkerErr
worker_wait(WorkerId thread);

This function is used to wait for a thread to end before continuing the program.

Parameters

thread: a WorkerId, returned by the worker() function.

Return value

It's the error code number, literally an unsigned long. It can be NULL but if not, see pthread_create POSIX information page for Linux or OSX and GetLastError() documentation for Windows.

worker_stop()

WorkerErr
worker_stop(WorkerId thread);

Terminate a thread. Considered as an unsafe instruction.

Parameters

thread: a WorkerId, returned by the worker() function.

Return value

It's the error code number, literally an unsigned long. It can be NULL but if not, see pthread_create POSIX information page for Linux or OSX and GetLastError() documentation for Windows.

Example

#include "worker/worker.h"

#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>

void
timeout(int time)
{
    sleep(time);
    printf("Wake up\n");
}

void
handleError(WorkerErr err)
{
    if (err)
    {
        printf("Error code: %ld\n", err);
        _exit(0);
    }
}

int
main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    WorkerErr err;

    void* args = { 2 };
    WorkerId thread = worker(timeout, args, &err);
    handleError(err);

    printf("The thread has started!\n");

    err = worker_wait(thread);
    handleError(err);

    printf("Timeout finished.\n");
}

This example will print the following:

The thread has started!
Wake up!
Timeout finished

« Wake up! » printed 2 seconds after « The thread has started! » like wanted with the sleep(2). And « Timeout finished. » directly printed after the thread's end.