Concurrent Details Matter - Why and How we fixed std::thread by std::jthread

Nicolai Josuttis

Keynote
advanced
intermediate
beginner

With C++20 we will have a new basic thread class, std::jthread. It will fix some basic flaws of std::thread, because std::thread was not designed as an easy-to-use RAII type and lacks support for stopping a running thread.

Sounds easy: we only have to pass a parameter to signal cancellation and implement a destructor that performs this request before it joins. But regarding concurrency, nothing is easy in programming. The devil is in the details, especially in C++.

So this is not a talk about jthread. It is a talk about how implementing a pretty simple additional concurrent requirement became a tricky task with many traps. You don't want to do it yourself.

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Nico is also running a full day workshop on Move Semantics just after the main conference.

Nicolai Josuttis

Nicolai Josuttis (www.josuttis.com) is well known in the C++ Community for speaking and writing with authority about C++ (being the author of "The C++ Standard Library", "C++ Templates" (coauthor), and "C+++17 - The Complete Guide") but is also an innovative presenter. He is an active member of C++ standardization committee for more than 20 years now.