How Can I Forcefully Terminate a Single Thread in C 11 Without Cooperation?

Non-Cooperative Thread Termination in C 11

In multi-threaded applications, it may arise that forceful termination of a specific thread becomes necessary. While graceful termination via join or detach is ideal, this article delves into methods for abruptly ending a thread in C 11.

Options for Forceful Thread Termination:

1. Calling std::terminate(): Invoking std::terminate() from any thread will abruptly terminate all threads in the process.
2. Using ~thread() Destructor: Executing ~thread() on the target thread object will also forcefully end the thread, provided that no join or detach operations have been performed on it.
3. Custom Exception Handling: Create an exception with a destructor that throws another exception. Design the target thread to throw this exception upon termination, but this method requires explicit cooperation from the target thread.

Resource Implications:

Options 1 and 2 cause no intra-process resource leaks, but they terminate all running threads indiscriminately.

Option 3 likely results in resource leaks since the target thread must participate in the termination process.

Limitations:

C 11 lacks a portable and non-cooperative mechanism for terminating a single thread without impacting others. This absence stems from the lack of motivation for such a feature.

Native Handle Use (Platform-Specific):

Certain platforms, like Apple's OS, provide a native_handle() member function in std::thread. This can be used to access OS-dependent functions for thread management, potentially allowing forceful termination. However, this approach may introduce resource leaks.

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