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c++multithreadingboostpthreadsposix
Chris
Chris

Reputation: 22237

PThread vs boost::thread?

Having no experience with threading in the past, which threading technique in C++ will be the easiest for a beginner? boost::thread or pthreads?

Upvotes: 23

Views: 24793

Answers (5)

Duck
Duck

Reputation: 27542

I'll go in the opposite direction of everyone else - learn (or at least familiarize yourself with what is available in) pthreads.

Since boost is mainly just a wrapper around pthreads (on posix platforms) it helps to know what is going on underneath. In attempting to be generic, boost leaves the platform specific functionality unwrapped. In order to get to it you need to use the native_handle() calls. In order to use the native_handle() calls you need to know what the platform offers.

Think of it like sockets. There are dozens of socket classes and frameworks. But ultimately they wrap the underlying platform's socket API. Your understanding is always richer by knowing it - and knowing in what ways your class abstractions might have short comings.

Upvotes: 38

Malte Clasen
Malte Clasen

Reputation: 5637

Go for boost::thread. It's closely related to the work on the upcoming C++ standard threads, and the interface is quite easy to use and idiomatic to C++ (RAII instead of manual resource management).

Upvotes: 35

Emile Cormier
Emile Cormier

Reputation: 29199

Boost.Thread uses the RAII concept for locking, which makes things more exception safe and helps to avoid bugs like forgetting to release a mutex.

Upvotes: 6

Chris S
Chris S

Reputation: 785

I'd say they're pretty close to equal in difficulty. The only big difference I see is that PThreads are pretty widely support (if you're concerned with cross platform porting). Another is that there have been quite a few good books on PThreads, though almost all the concepts will translate over to boost::thread, and many other threading libraries.

Upvotes: 2

Stefan Arentz
Stefan Arentz

Reputation: 34935

boost::thread is a very nice and portable abstraction. I would certainly use it, but also learn the native thread api, like pthreads, so that you know how threading works on your platform.

Upvotes: 9

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