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I wanted to know what the difference between a boost::thread and a boost::thread_group is the documentation states.

thread_group provides for a collection of threads that are related in some fashion. New threads can be added to the group with add_thread and create_thread member functions. thread_group is not copyable or movable.

Apart from thread categorization I am not sure what other differences there might be and when should I prefer to use one or the other.

MistyD
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1 Answers1

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A thread groups is... a group of threads.

You should use it whenever you want to manage a group of threads that logically share a purpose, lifetime etc.

E.g. when writing a task queue with a pool of worker threads¹, the construction of the threads and destruction thereof isn't trivial with

  • exception safety
  • joining joinable threads in all code paths

So you'd use a thread_group to get all this machinery automatically.

¹ see here for an example: Boost group_threads Maximal number of parallel thread

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sehe
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