id,summary,reporter,owner,description,type,status,milestone,component,version,severity,resolution,keywords,cc
7496,[thread] call interrupt() and join() int destructor of a joinable thread,Andrzej Krzemienski <akrzemi1@…>,viboes,"boost::thread's destructor calls terminate if joinable, in order to conform to C++11 specification. I am not sure if this is the best course of action.
My understanding -- form the C++ Committee papers and informal presentations -- is that the reason for introducing a  'terminating destructor' was the lack of thread cancellation/interruption functionality. Thread interruption is supposed to be the preferred behavior for thread's destructor. std::thread does not support interruption (for some reasons), but boost::thread does (this is already a departure from C++11), so shouldn't the latter prefer to interrupt and join a joinable thread in the destructor?


My preference would be to join (rater than detach) after the interruption. If I remember correctly, the argument against joining for std::thread is that there would be an unexpected hang upon reaching the end of the scope. The argument against detaching for std::thread is that the detached thread may be holding references to automatic variables defined in the scope of the forking thread that we are now exiting.

I believe that with thread interruption in place the argument against joining is mitigated, while the argument against detaching still holds.",Feature Requests,closed,To Be Determined,thread,Boost 1.52.0,Problem,worksforme,thread interrupt join destructor,