Determine the Requiring Variables on the Scope of a Thread

It is very common in server application programs to require variables on the scope of a thread. To provide such a scope, the per-thread data item must be introduced. This data item may be used as a global variable, but each access needs to be made within the scope of a thread (that is, be unique for each thread). For instance, information such as errno must be unique to each thread or unpredictable results may occur. errno is a variable generally set by the operating system when certain application function are executed. Within NetWare , UnixWare, and OS/2, the variable is named errno. To receive the per-thread errno in Windows NT, the application must call GetLastError( ). Assume that two threads named A and B are making library function calls in which the errno variable will be set. If the two threads used the same global variable, the following might occur.

1. Thread A makes a call that results in an error and sets errno to 0X 10.

2. Thread B is then scheduled, makes a system call that executes properly, and sets errno to 0XX00.

3. Because Thread A and Thread B are using the same global errno, when Thread A queries errno it will have the results from Thread B.

This could be avoided if errno was of threads scope and thus was unique for each thread. All platforms with the exception of UnixWare consider errno with a thread scope, so each reference would only change the current thread's copy of errno UnixWare provides errno on the scope of the process, as threads are not supported. In addition, our thread-based platforms provide a mechanism for developers to access application-defined thread data areas.