Pthread Review Questions

Topics

• pthread lifecycle
• Each thread has a stack
• Capturing return values from a thread
• Using pthread_join
• Using pthread_create
• Using pthread_exit
• Under what conditions will a process exit

Questions

• What happens when a pthread gets created? (you don't need to go into super specifics)
• Where is each thread's stack?
• How do you get a return value given a pthread_t? What are the ways a thread can set that return value? What happens if you discard the return value?
• Why is pthread_join important (think stack space, registers, return values)?
• What does pthread_exit do under normal circumstances (ie you are not the last thread)? What other functions are called when you call pthread_exit?
• Give me three conditions under which a multithreaded process will exit. Can you think of any more?
• What is an embarrassingly parallel problem?