Pthread_cond_timedwait() returning ETIMEDOUT too soon?

Question

I have two threads in my program. I would like the thread containing main() to spawn a new thread to perform a complicated task for up to five minutes, but kill it if it takes too long. I've been trying to accomplish this with a pthread_cond_timedwait, but it seems that this function can sometimes return ETIMEDOUT after no where near the correct amount of time has elapsed. A post at http://dbforums.com/showthread.php?t=769084 suggests that this might be caused by an hourly NTP synchronization changing the system clock time and invalidating the waiting timer. Is there any good way to work around this issue, or to handle a thread timing out more intelligently?

Answer 1

Probably the simplest way to use threads on Solaris is to use pthreads -- it's a portable thread interface that is the same on nearly all operating systems.
To use pthreads in C or C++ using Sun compilers, include <pthread.h> in your code, add the option -mt to every command line, and add -lpthread to each link command.
The full power of Solaris threads is not available via the pthread interface, but pthread is often all you need.
For more information, consult the C++ Users Guide, the Solaris man pages related to threads and pthreads.
Books on the topic are also available. ACCU has an extensive list of reviewed books. Here is a review of a book about pthreads:
http://accu.org/index.php/book_reviews?url=view.xqy?review=p002088