mini-pthread – Custom Threading Library in C

mini-pthread is a lightweight implementation of a threading library that replicates the core behaviour of POSIX pthreads at the user level, built from scratch in C. It supports cooperative multitasking, thread lifecycle control, manual context switching, and basic synchronization primitives.

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Features

• thread_create – Create new user-level threads
• thread_exit – Terminate the calling thread
• thread_join – Wait for a thread to finish
• thread_sleep(ms) – Sleep a thread for a given duration
• thread_yield() – Yield execution to other threads
• context_switch() – Explicit context switching between threads

Synchronisation Support

• Mutexes:
  • mutex_init(m)
  • mutex_acquire(m)
  • mutex_release(m)
• Semaphores:
  • sem_init(sem, value)
  • sem_wait(sem)
  • sem_post(sem)

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How It Works

• Implements cooperative (non-preemptive) threading using setjmp / longjmp or ucontext for context switching
• Threads are managed in a queue with a simple scheduler
• Each thread has its own stack and context
• Mutexes and semaphores block/yield threads without kernel involvement