Quote:
Originally posted by Radu
The probably best way to close a thread is to use ExitThread(0) from within the thread. This way everything is cleaned up well. So, you can have something like:
if (yourCloseFlag)
ExitThread(0);
Whoa! "Everything" is not cleaned up, and it is NOT the best way to close a thread...
Richter, "Programming Applications for Microsoft Windows":
Quote:
You can force your thread to terminate by having it call ExitThread:
Code:
VOID ExitThread(DWORD dwExitCode);
This function terminates the thread and causes the operating system to clean up all of the operating system resources that were used by the thread.
However, your C/C++ resources (such as C++ class objects) will not be destroyed. For this reason, it is much better to simply return from your thread function instead of calling ExitThread yourself.
Quote:
The recommended way to have a thread terminate is by having its thread function simply return (as described in the previous section). However, if you use the method described in this section, be aware that the ExitThread function is the Windows function that kills a thread. If you are writing C/C++ code, you should never call ExitThread. Instead, you should use the Visual C++ run-time library function _endthreadex.
Quote:
Note that calling ExitProcess or ExitThread causes a process or thread to die while inside a function. As far the operating system is concerned, this is fine and all of the process's or thread's operating system resources will be cleaned up perfectly. However, a C/C++ application should avoid calling these functions because the C/C++ run time might not be able to clean up properly
Quote:
Making explicit calls to ExitProcess and ExitThread is a common problem that causes an application to not clean itself up properly. In the case of ExitThread, the process continues to run but can leak memory or other resources.