TerminateThread
The TerminateThread
function terminates a thread.
BOOL TerminateThread(
|
HANDLE hThread, |
// handle to the
thread |
|
DWORD dwExitCode |
// exit code for
the thread |
|
); |
|
Parameters
hThread
Identifies
the thread to terminate.
Windows
NT: The handle must have THREAD_TERMINATE
access. For more information, see Thread ObjectsXZNTT..
dwExitCode
Specifies the
exit code for the thread. Use the GetExitCodeThread function to retrieve a
thread s exit value.
Return Values
If the
function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.
If the
function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information,
call GetLastError.
Remarks
TerminateThread is used to cause a thread to exit. When this occurs,
the target thread has no chance to execute any user-mode code and its initial
stack is not deallocated. DLLs attached to the thread are not notified that the
thread is terminating.
TerminateThread is a dangerous function that should only be used in
the most extreme cases. You should call TerminateThread only if you know
exactly what the target thread is doing, and you control all of the code that
the target thread could possibly be running at the time of the termination. For
example, TerminateThread can result in the following problems:
If the target thread owns a critical
section, the critical section will not be released.
If the target thread is
executing certain kernel32 calls when it is terminated, the kernel32 state for
the thread s process could be inconsistent.
If the target thread is
manipulating the global state of a shared DLL, the state of the DLL could be
destroyed, affecting other users of the DLL.
A thread
cannot protect itself against TerminateThread, other than by controlling
access to its handles. The thread handle returned by the CreateThread and
CreateProcess functions has THREAD_TERMINATE access, so any caller
holding one of these handles can terminate your thread.
If the target
thread is the last thread of a process when this function is called, the
thread s process is also terminated.
The state of
the thread object becomes signaled, releasing any other threads that had been
waiting for the thread to terminate. The thread s termination status changes
from STILL_ACTIVE to the value of the dwExitCode parameter.
Terminating a
thread does not necessarily remove the thread object from the system. A thread
object is deleted when the last thread handle is closed.
See Also