(This is the documentation for SDL3, which is the current stable version. SDL2 was the previous version!)

SDL_DetachThread

Let a thread clean up on exit without intervention.

Header File

Syntax

void SDL_DetachThread(SDL_Thread *thread);

Function Parameters

SDL_Thread *

thread

the SDL_Thread pointer that was returned from the SDL_CreateThread() call that started this thread.

Remarks

A thread may be "detached" to signify that it should not remain until another thread has called SDL_WaitThread() on it. Detaching a thread is useful for long-running threads that nothing needs to synchronize with or further manage. When a detached thread is done, it simply goes away.

There is no way to recover the return code of a detached thread. If you need this, don't detach the thread and instead use SDL_WaitThread().

Once a thread is detached, you should usually assume the SDL_Thread isn't safe to reference again, as it will become invalid immediately upon the detached thread's exit, instead of remaining until someone has called SDL_WaitThread() to finally clean it up. As such, don't detach the same thread more than once.

If a thread has already exited when passed to SDL_DetachThread(), it will stop waiting for a call to SDL_WaitThread() and clean up immediately. It is not safe to detach a thread that might be used with SDL_WaitThread().

You may not call SDL_WaitThread() on a thread that has been detached. Use either that function or this one, but not both, or behavior is undefined.

It is safe to pass NULL to this function; it is a no-op.

Version

This function is available since SDL 3.1.3.

Code Examples

extern int TestThread(void *ptr);
SDL_Thread *thread = SDL_CreateThread(TestThread, "TestThread", (void *)NULL);
SDL_DetachThread(thread);  /* will go away on its own upon completion. */