PTHREAD_DETACH(3)                                                       Linux Programmer's Manual                                                      PTHREAD_DETACH(3)

NAME
       pthread_detach - detach a thread

SYNOPSIS
       #include <pthread.h>

       int pthread_detach(pthread_t thread);

       Compile and link with -pthread.

DESCRIPTION
       The  pthread_detach()  function  marks  the thread identified by thread as detached.  When a detached thread terminates, its resources are automatically released
       back to the system without the need for another thread to join with the terminated thread.

       Attempting to detach an already detached thread results in unspecified behavior.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, pthread_detach() returns 0; on error, it returns an error number.

ERRORS
       EINVAL thread is not a joinable thread.

       ESRCH  No thread with the ID thread could be found.

ATTRIBUTES
       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface                                                                                                                             │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │pthread_detach()                                                                                                                      │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES
       Once a thread has been detached, it can't be joined with pthread_join(3) or be made joinable again.

       A new thread can be created in a detached state using pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3) to set the detached attribute of the attr argument of pthread_create(3).

       The detached attribute merely determines the behavior of the system when the thread terminates; it does not prevent the  thread  from  being  terminated  if  the
       process terminates using exit(3) (or equivalently, if the main thread returns).

       Either pthread_join(3) or pthread_detach() should be called for each thread that an application creates, so that system resources for the thread can be released.
       (But note that the resources of any threads for which one of these actions has not been done will be freed when the process terminates.)

EXAMPLES
       The following statement detaches the calling thread:

           pthread_detach(pthread_self());

SEE ALSO
       pthread_attr_setdetachstate(3), pthread_cancel(3), pthread_create(3), pthread_exit(3), pthread_join(3), pthreads(7)

Linux                                                                          2021-03-22                                                              PTHREAD_DETACH(3)