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PTHREAD_KEY_DELETE(3P)     POSIX Programmer's Manual    PTHREAD_KEY_DELETE(3P)
PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the  corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
       pthread_key_delete -- thread-specific data key deletion
SYNOPSIS
       #include <pthread.h>
       int pthread_key_delete(pthread_key_t key);
DESCRIPTION
       The pthread_key_delete() function shall delete a  thread-specific  data
       key  previously  returned by pthread_key_create().  The thread-specific
       data  values  associated  with  key  need  not  be  NULL  at  the  time
       pthread_key_delete()  is called. It is the responsibility of the appli-
       cation to free any application storage or perform any  cleanup  actions
       for  data  structures  related to the deleted key or associated thread-
       specific data in any threads; this cleanup can be done either before or
       after  pthread_key_delete() is called. Any attempt to use key following
       the call to pthread_key_delete() results in undefined behavior.
       The  pthread_key_delete()  function  shall  be  callable  from   within
       destructor  functions.  No  destructor  functions  shall  be invoked by
       pthread_key_delete().  Any destructor function that may have been asso-
       ciated with key shall no longer be called upon thread exit.
RETURN VALUE
       If  successful,  the  pthread_key_delete()  function shall return zero;
       otherwise, an error number shall be returned to indicate the error.
ERRORS
       The pthread_key_delete() function shall not return  an  error  code  of
       [EINTR].
       The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
       None.
APPLICATION USAGE
       None.
RATIONALE
       A thread-specific data key deletion function has been included in order
       to allow the resources associated with an unused  thread-specific  data
       key  to  be  freed.  Unused  thread-specific data keys can arise, among
       other scenarios, when a dynamically loaded module that allocated a  key
       is unloaded.
       Conforming  applications  are  responsible  for  performing any cleanup
       actions needed for data  structures  associated  with  the  key  to  be
       deleted,  including  data referenced by thread-specific data values. No
       such cleanup is done by pthread_key_delete().  In particular,  destruc-
       tor  functions are not called. There are several reasons for this divi-
       sion of responsibility:
        1. The associated destructor functions used  to  free  thread-specific
           data at thread exit time are only guaranteed to work correctly when
           called in the  thread  that  allocated  the  thread-specific  data.
           (Destructors  themselves  may  utilize thread-specific data.) Thus,
           they cannot be used to free thread-specific data in  other  threads
           at  key  deletion  time.   Attempting  to have them called by other
           threads at key deletion time would  require  other  threads  to  be
           asynchronously  interrupted. But since interrupted threads could be
           in an arbitrary state, including holding locks  necessary  for  the
           destructor  to  run, this approach would fail. In general, there is
           no safe mechanism whereby an implementation could free  thread-spe-
           cific data at key deletion time.
        2. Even  if  there were a means of safely freeing thread-specific data
           associated with keys to be deleted, doing  so  would  require  that
           implementations be able to enumerate the threads with non-NULL data
           and potentially keep them from creating more  thread-specific  data
           while  the key deletion is occurring. This special case could cause
           extra synchronization in the normal case, which would otherwise  be
           unnecessary.
       For  an  application to know that it is safe to delete a key, it has to
       know that all the threads that might potentially ever use  the  key  do
       not attempt to use it again. For example, it could know this if all the
       client threads have called a cleanup procedure declaring that they  are
       through  with  the module that is being shut down, perhaps by setting a
       reference count to zero.
       If an implementation detects that the value specified by the key  argu-
       ment  to  pthread_key_delete() does not refer to a a key value obtained
       from pthread_key_create() or refers to a key that has been deleted with
       pthread_key_delete(),  it  is recommended that the function should fail
       and report an [EINVAL] error.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.
SEE ALSO
       pthread_key_create()
       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, <pthread.h>
COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in  electronic  form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX),  The  Open  Group  Base
       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri-
       cal and Electronics Engineers,  Inc  and  The  Open  Group.   (This  is
       POSIX.1-2008  with  the  2013  Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The  Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
       is the referee document. The original Standard can be  obtained  online
       at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
       Any  typographical  or  formatting  errors that appear in this page are
       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
       files  to  man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker-
       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group                  2013               PTHREAD_KEY_DELETE(3P)