README.md

C++ Examples with POSIX threads ⬆

Directory pthreads-examples\ contains C++ code examples from various websites which use POSIX threads on Windows. It also includes build scripts (batch files, Make scripts) for experimenting with C++ on a Windows machine.

The code examples presented below can be built/run with the following tools:

Build tool	Build file	Parent file	Environment(s)
cmd.exe	build.bat		Windows only
make.exe	Makefile	Makefile.inc	Any a)

^a) Here "Any" means "tested on Windows, Cygwin, MSYS2 and UNIX".
 

☛ You're warned !!
The following projects differ from those presented in document examples\README.md in two important ways :

1. We invoke directly the 3 C++ compilers Clang, GCC and MSVC, i.e. we do not rely on tools such as CMake, GNU Make or MSBuild to manage the build configurations.
2. When working with Clang and MSVC we need to add thePthreads-win32 library as an external dependency to support POSIX threads on Windows.

Concretely, we impose ourselves the delicate exercise of managing all the compiler options by hand.
NB. This exercise is of course only realistic for small projects (in our case "demo" projects).

fib Example

This example comes from GitHub repository microsoft/vscode-cpptols; it has the following directory structure :

> tree /f /a . | findstr /v /b [A-Z]
|   00download.txt
|   build.bat
|   CMakeLists.txt
|   Doxyfile
|   Makefile
\---src
    \---main
        \---cpp
                main.cpp
                thread.cpp
                thread.h

Batch file build.bat matches what the user would run from the command prompt (use option -debug to display the execution details). We specify the C++ compiler with one of the options -bcc, -clang, -gcc (default), -icx or -msvc :

> build -verbose clean compile
Delete directory "target"
Toolset: GCC
Compile 2 C++ source files to directoy "target"
 
> build -verbose -clang clean compile
Delete directory "target"
Toolset: Clang
Compile 2 C++ source files to directoy "target"
Copy file "pthreadVC2.dll" to directory "target"
 
> build -verbose -msvc clean compile
Delete directory "target"
Toolset: MSVC
Compile 2 C++ source files to directoy "target"
Copy file "pthreadVC2.dll" to directory "target"

🔎 DLL file pthreadVC2.dll of the Pthreads-win32 external library is copied to the output directory when specifying option -clang or -msvc :

> dir /b build\Release
fib.exe
pthreadVC2.dll

myTurn Example ▴

This example comes from the YouTube video How to create and join threads in C from Jacob Sorber; it has the following directory structure :

> tree /f /a . | findstr /v /b [A-Z]
|   00download.txt
|   build.bat
|   Makefile
\---src
    \---main
        \---cpp
                threads.cpp

Command make.exe reads its configuration from file Makefile and generates the myTurn.exe executable using variable TOOLSET with one of the values clang, gcc, icx or msvc to specify the C++ compiler :

> make TOOLSET=gcc clean run
C:/opt/msys64/usr/bin/rm.exe -rf "build"
"C:/opt/msys64/mingw64/bin/g++.exe"  --std=c++17 -O2\
 -lpthread -Wall -Wno-unused-variable -Wno-unused-but-set-variable\
 -o build/Release/myTurn.exe src/main/cpp/threads.cpp
build/Release/myTurn.exe
My Turn! 1/8
Your Turn! 1/3
My Turn! 2/8
My Turn! 3/8
My Turn! 4/8
Your Turn! 2/3
My Turn! 5/8
My Turn! 6/8
Your Turn! 3/3
My Turn! 7/8
My Turn! 8/8
 
> make TOOLSET=clang clean run
C:/opt/msys64/usr/bin/rm.exe -rf "build"
"$(LLVM_HOME)/bin/clang.exe"  --std=c++17 -O2\
 -D_TIMESPEC_DEFINED -I"../pthreads-win32/include"\
 -L"../pthreads-win32/lib/x64" -lpthreadVC2 -Wall -Wno-unused-variable\
 -o build/Release/myTurn.exe src/main/cpp/threads.cpp
"C:/opt/msys64/usr/bin/cp.exe" "../pthreads-win32/dll/x64/pthreadVC2.dll" "build/Release/"
build/Release/myTurn.exe
My Turn! 1/8
Your Turn! 1/3
My Turn! 2/8
My Turn! 3/8
Your Turn! 2/3
My Turn! 4/8
My Turn! 5/8
Your Turn! 3/3
My Turn! 6/8
My Turn! 7/8
My Turn! 8/8
 
> make TOOLSET=msvc clean run
C:/opt/msys64/usr/bin/rm.exe -rf "build"
"$(MSVC_HOME)/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe"  -nologo -std:c++17 -EHsc\
 -I"$(MSVC_HOME)/include" -I"$(WINSDK_HOME)/include/10.0.22000.0/ucrt"\
 -I"$(WINSDK_HOME)/include/10.0.22000.0/um"\
 -D_TIMESPEC_DEFINED -I"../pthreads-win32/include" -Fo"build/"\
 -Fe"build/Release/myTurn.exe" src/main/cpp/threads.cpp\
 -link -libpath:"$(MSVC_HOME)/lib/x64" -libpath:"$(WINSDK_HOME)/lib/10.0.22000.0/ucrt/x64"\
 -libpath:"$(WINSDK_HOME)/lib/10.0.22000.0/um/x64"\
 -defaultlib:"../pthreads-win32/lib/x64/pthreadVC2" -machine:x64
threads.cpp
"C:/opt/msys64/usr/bin/cp.exe" "../pthreads-win32/dll/x64/pthreadVC2.dll" "build/Release/"
build/Release/myTurn.exe
My Turn! 1/8
Your Turn! 1/3
My Turn! 2/8
My Turn! 3/8
Your Turn! 2/3
My Turn! 4/8
My Turn! 5/8
Your Turn! 3/3
My Turn! 6/8
My Turn! 7/8
My Turn! 8/8

pThreadDemo Example ▴

This example comes from the YouTube video Using Pthread In Windows; it has the following structure :

> tree /f /a . | findstr /v /b [A-Z]
|   00download.txt
|   build.bat
\---src
    \---main
        \---cpp
                pThreadDemo.cpp

Batch file build.bat matches what the user would run from the command prompt (use option -debug to see the execution details). We give one of the options -clang, -gcc (default), -icx or -msvc to specify the C++ compiler :

> build -verbose -gcc clean run
Delete directory "target"
Toolset: GCC
Compile 1 C++ source file to directory "target"
Execute "target\pThreadDemo.exe"
Creating thread 0
Creating thread 1
Creating thread 2
Creating thread 3
Creating thread 4
 
> build -verbose -clang clean run
Delete directory "target"
Toolset: Clang
Compile 1 C++ source file to directory "target"
Copy file "pthreadVC2.dll" to directory "target"
Execute "target\pThreadDemo.exe"
Creating thread 0
Creating thread 1
Creating thread 2
Creating thread 3
Creating thread 4
 
> build -verbose -msvc clean run
Delete directory "target"
Toolset: MSVC
Compile 1 C++ source file to directory "target"
Copy file "pthreadVC2.dll" to directory "target"
Execute "target\pThreadDemo.exe"
Creating thread 0
Creating thread 1
Creating thread 2
Creating thread 3
Creating thread 4

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mics/January 2025 ▲