POSIX.1 also requires that threads share a range of other attributes (i.e., these attributes are process-wide rather than per-thread):
As well as the stack, POSIX.1 specifies that various other attributes are distinct for each thread, including:
The following Linux-specific features are also per-thread:
Thread IDs are guaranteed to be unique only within a process. (In all pthreads functions that accept a thread ID as an argument, that ID by definition refers to a thread in the same process as the caller.)
The system may reuse a thread ID after a terminated thread has been joined, or a detached thread has terminated. POSIX says: "If an application attempts to use a thread ID whose lifetime has ended, the behavior is undefined."
POSIX.1-2001 and POSIX.1-2008 require that all functions specified in the standard shall be thread-safe, except for the following functions:
asctime()
basename()
catgets()
crypt()
ctermid() if passed a non-NULL argument
ctime()
dbm_clearerr()
dbm_close()
dbm_delete()
dbm_error()
dbm_fetch()
dbm_firstkey()
dbm_nextkey()
dbm_open()
dbm_store()
dirname()
dlerror()
drand48()
ecvt() [POSIX.1-2001 only (function removed in POSIX.1-2008)]
encrypt()
endgrent()
endpwent()
endutxent()
fcvt() [POSIX.1-2001 only (function removed in POSIX.1-2008)]
ftw()
gcvt() [POSIX.1-2001 only (function removed in POSIX.1-2008)]
getc_unlocked()
getchar_unlocked()
getdate()
getenv()
getgrent()
getgrgid()
getgrnam()
gethostbyaddr() [POSIX.1-2001 only (function removed in
POSIX.1-2008)]
gethostbyname() [POSIX.1-2001 only (function removed in
POSIX.1-2008)]
gethostent()
getlogin()
getnetbyaddr()
getnetbyname()
getnetent()
getopt()
getprotobyname()
getprotobynumber()
getprotoent()
getpwent()
getpwnam()
getpwuid()
getservbyname()
getservbyport()
getservent()
getutxent()
getutxid()
getutxline()
gmtime()
hcreate()
hdestroy()
hsearch()
inet_ntoa()
l64a()
lgamma()
lgammaf()
lgammal()
localeconv()
localtime()
lrand48()
mrand48()
nftw()
nl_langinfo()
ptsname()
putc_unlocked()
putchar_unlocked()
putenv()
pututxline()
rand()
readdir()
setenv()
setgrent()
setkey()
setpwent()
setutxent()
strerror()
strsignal() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
strtok()
system() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
tmpnam() if passed a non-NULL argument
ttyname()
unsetenv()
wcrtomb() if its final argument is NULL
wcsrtombs() if its final argument is NULL
wcstombs()
wctomb()
Only the following functions are required to be async-cancel-safe by POSIX.1-2001 and POSIX.1-2008:
pthread_cancel() pthread_setcancelstate() pthread_setcanceltype()
The following functions are required to be cancellation points by POSIX.1-2001 and/or POSIX.1-2008:
accept() aio_suspend() clock_nanosleep() close() connect() creat() fcntl() F_SETLKW fdatasync() fsync() getmsg() getpmsg() lockf() F_LOCK mq_receive() mq_send() mq_timedreceive() mq_timedsend() msgrcv() msgsnd() msync() nanosleep() open() openat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008] pause() poll() pread() pselect() pthread_cond_timedwait() pthread_cond_wait() pthread_join() pthread_testcancel() putmsg() putpmsg() pwrite() read() readv() recv() recvfrom() recvmsg() select() sem_timedwait() sem_wait() send() sendmsg() sendto() sigpause() [POSIX.1-2001 only (moves to "may" list in POSIX.1-2008)] sigsuspend() sigtimedwait() sigwait() sigwaitinfo() sleep() system() tcdrain() usleep() [POSIX.1-2001 only (function removed in POSIX.1-2008)] wait() waitid() waitpid() write() writev()
The following functions may be cancellation points according to POSIX.1-2001 and/or POSIX.1-2008:
access()
asctime()
asctime_r()
catclose()
catgets()
catopen()
chmod() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
chown() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
closedir()
closelog()
ctermid()
ctime()
ctime_r()
dbm_close()
dbm_delete()
dbm_fetch()
dbm_nextkey()
dbm_open()
dbm_store()
dlclose()
dlopen()
dprintf() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
endgrent()
endhostent()
endnetent()
endprotoent()
endpwent()
endservent()
endutxent()
faccessat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
fchmod() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
fchmodat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
fchown() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
fchownat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
fclose()
fcntl() (for any value of cmd argument)
fflush()
fgetc()
fgetpos()
fgets()
fgetwc()
fgetws()
fmtmsg()
fopen()
fpathconf()
fprintf()
fputc()
fputs()
fputwc()
fputws()
fread()
freopen()
fscanf()
fseek()
fseeko()
fsetpos()
fstat()
fstatat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
ftell()
ftello()
ftw()
futimens() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
fwprintf()
fwrite()
fwscanf()
getaddrinfo()
getc()
getc_unlocked()
getchar()
getchar_unlocked()
getcwd()
getdate()
getdelim() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
getgrent()
getgrgid()
getgrgid_r()
getgrnam()
getgrnam_r()
gethostbyaddr() [POSIX.1-2001 only (function removed in
POSIX.1-2008)]
gethostbyname() [POSIX.1-2001 only (function removed in
POSIX.1-2008)]
gethostent()
gethostid()
gethostname()
getline() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
getlogin()
getlogin_r()
getnameinfo()
getnetbyaddr()
getnetbyname()
getnetent()
getopt() (if opterr is nonzero)
getprotobyname()
getprotobynumber()
getprotoent()
getpwent()
getpwnam()
getpwnam_r()
getpwuid()
getpwuid_r()
gets()
getservbyname()
getservbyport()
getservent()
getutxent()
getutxid()
getutxline()
getwc()
getwchar()
getwd() [POSIX.1-2001 only (function removed in POSIX.1-2008)]
glob()
iconv_close()
iconv_open()
ioctl()
link()
linkat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
lio_listio() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
localtime()
localtime_r()
lockf() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
lseek()
lstat()
mkdir() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
mkdirat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
mkdtemp() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
mkfifo() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
mkfifoat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
mknod() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
mknodat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
mkstemp()
mktime()
nftw()
opendir()
openlog()
pathconf()
pclose()
perror()
popen()
posix_fadvise()
posix_fallocate()
posix_madvise()
posix_openpt()
posix_spawn()
posix_spawnp()
posix_trace_clear()
posix_trace_close()
posix_trace_create()
posix_trace_create_withlog()
posix_trace_eventtypelist_getnext_id()
posix_trace_eventtypelist_rewind()
posix_trace_flush()
posix_trace_get_attr()
posix_trace_get_filter()
posix_trace_get_status()
posix_trace_getnext_event()
posix_trace_open()
posix_trace_rewind()
posix_trace_set_filter()
posix_trace_shutdown()
posix_trace_timedgetnext_event()
posix_typed_mem_open()
printf()
psiginfo() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
psignal() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
pthread_rwlock_rdlock()
pthread_rwlock_timedrdlock()
pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock()
pthread_rwlock_wrlock()
putc()
putc_unlocked()
putchar()
putchar_unlocked()
puts()
pututxline()
putwc()
putwchar()
readdir()
readdir_r()
readlink() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
readlinkat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
remove()
rename()
renameat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
rewind()
rewinddir()
scandir() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
scanf()
seekdir()
semop()
setgrent()
sethostent()
setnetent()
setprotoent()
setpwent()
setservent()
setutxent()
sigpause() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
stat()
strerror()
strerror_r()
strftime()
symlink()
symlinkat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
sync()
syslog()
tmpfile()
tmpnam()
ttyname()
ttyname_r()
tzset()
ungetc()
ungetwc()
unlink()
unlinkat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
utime() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
utimensat() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
utimes() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
vdprintf() [Added in POSIX.1-2008]
vfprintf()
vfwprintf()
vprintf()
vwprintf()
wcsftime()
wordexp()
wprintf()
wscanf()
An implementation may also mark other functions not specified in the standard as cancellation points. In particular, an implementation is likely to mark any nonstandard function that may block as a cancellation point. (This includes most functions that can touch files.)
It should be noted that even if an application is not using asynchronous cancellation, that calling a function from the above list from an asynchronous signal handler may cause the equivalent of asynchronous cancellation. The underlying user code may not expect asynchronous cancellation and the state of the user data may become inconsistent. Therefore signals should be used with caution when entering a region of deferred cancellation.
Both of these are so-called 1:1 implementations, meaning that each thread maps to a kernel scheduling entity. Both threading implementations employ the Linux clone(2) system call. In NPTL, thread synchronization primitives (mutexes, thread joining, and so on) are implemented using the Linux futex(2) system call.
The LinuxThreads implementation deviates from the POSIX.1 specification in a number of ways, including the following:
NPTL makes internal use of the first two real-time signals; these signals cannot be used in applications. See nptl(7) for further details.
NPTL still has at least one nonconformance with POSIX.1:
Some NPTL nonconformances occur only with older kernels:
Note the following further points about the NPTL implementation:
bash$ getconf GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION NPTL 2.3.4
With older glibc versions, a command such as the following should be sufficient to determine the default threading implementation:
bash$ $( ldd /bin/ls | grep libc.so | awk '{print $3}' ) | \
egrep -i 'threads|nptl'
Native POSIX Threads Library by Ulrich Drepper et al
bash$ $( LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 ldd /bin/ls | grep libc.so | \
awk '{print $3}' ) | egrep -i 'threads|nptl'
linuxthreads-0.10 by Xavier Leroy
Various Pthreads manual pages, for example: pthread_atfork(3), pthread_attr_init(3), pthread_cancel(3), pthread_cleanup_push(3), pthread_cond_signal(3), pthread_cond_wait(3), pthread_create(3), pthread_detach(3), pthread_equal(3), pthread_exit(3), pthread_key_create(3), pthread_kill(3), pthread_mutex_lock(3), pthread_mutex_unlock(3), pthread_mutexattr_destroy(3), pthread_mutexattr_init(3), pthread_once(3), pthread_spin_init(3), pthread_spin_lock(3), pthread_rwlockattr_setkind_np(3), pthread_setcancelstate(3), pthread_setcanceltype(3), pthread_setspecific(3), pthread_sigmask(3), pthread_sigqueue(3), and pthread_testcancel(3)