Boost C++ Libraries: Ticket #5150: boost::thread does not print or return the error value when creating a thread fails.

viboes — Tue, 10 May 2011 21:48:56 GMT

Please, could you clarify what is exactly wrong with the library?

anonymous — Wed, 11 May 2011 07:04:51 GMT

The problem is that the boost sources don't check for the error value when it creates a new thread in thread.cpp and report it back in any way, which makes it impossible to debug the reason why a thread creation might fail.

The thread::start_thread() calls _beginthreadex (which calls CreateThread if BOOST_HAS_THREADEX isn't defined). CreateThread has the following documentation on MSDN: "If the function fails, the return value is NULL. To get extended error information, call GetLastError." _beginthreadex has the following documentation on MSDN: "_beginthreadex returns 0 on an error, in which case errno and _doserrno are set.".

It would be more helpful if the the exception "boost::throw_exception(thread_resource_error());" would carry the reason for the failure, instead of only reporting back "I failed for an unknown reason.".

I tried to manually read GetLastError when this occurred, but it returned 0, which indicates that the error field was cleared by an operation in between.

type, severity changed

viboes — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:33:52 GMT

type Bugs → Feature Requests
severity Problem → Not Applicable

I don't see any bug in Boost.Thread. I think your concern will be best managed as a feature request.

status changed; resolution set; milestone deleted

viboes — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:11:16 GMT

status new → closed
resolution → duplicate
milestone To Be Determined

I have think a little bit more about this issue and I think that following the standard C++11 would respond to your request. I have added a more explicit feature request

#6230 Follows the exception reporting mechanism as defined in the c++11

So I will close this feature as duplicated.