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pthread_setcancelstate(3)
NAME
  pthread_setcancelstate - Sets the calling thread's cancelability state.

LIBRARY
  DECthreads POSIX 1003.1c Library (libpthread.so)

SYNOPSIS
  #include <pthread.h>

  int  pthread_setcancelstate(
			int	 state,
			int	 *oldstate);

STANDARDS
  Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards
  as follows:

  IEEE Std 1003.1c-1995, POSIX System Application Program Interface

PARAMETERS
  state	    State of general cancelability to set for the calling thread.
	    The following are valid cancel state values:

	      ·
	      PTHREAD_CANCEL_ENABLE

	      ·
	      PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE

  oldstate  Previous cancelability state for the calling thread.

DESCRIPTION
  This routine sets the current thread's cancelability state and returns the
  calling thread's previous cancelability state in oldstate.

  When cancelability state is set to PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE, a cancelation
  request cannot be delivered to the thread, even if a cancelable routine is
  called or asynchronous cancelability type is enabled.

  When a thread is created, the default cancelability state is
  PTHREAD_CANCEL_ENABLE.

  Possible Problems When Disabling Cancelability

  The most important use of thread cancelation is to ensure that indefinite
  wait operations are terminated.  For example, a thread that waits on some
  network connection, which can possibly take days to respond (or might never
  respond), should be made cancelable.

  When a thread's cancelability is disabled, no routine in that thread is
  cancelable.  As a result, the user is unable to cancel the operation
  performed by that thread.  When disabling cancelability, be sure that no
  long waits can occur or that it is necessary for other reasons to defer
  cancelation requests around that particular region of code.

RETURN VALUES
  On successful completion, this routine returns the calling thread's
  previous cancelability state in the location specified by the oldstate
  argument.

  If an error condition occurs, this routine returns an integer value
  indicating the type of error.	 Possible return values are as follows:

  0	    Successful completion.

  [EINVAL]  The specified state is not PTHREAD_CANCEL_ENABLE or
	    PTHREAD_CANCEL_DISABLE.

ERRORS
  None

RELATED INFORMATION
  Functions: pthread_cancel(3), pthread_setcanceltype(3),
  pthread_testcancel(3)

  Manuals: Guide to DECthreads and Programmer's Guide