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\chapter{The threads library}
\label{c:threads}\cutname{threads.html}
%HEVEA\cutname{libthreads.html}
The "threads" library allows concurrent programming in OCaml. It provides
multiple threads of control (also called lightweight processes) that execute
concurrently in the same memory space. Threads communicate by in-place
modification of shared data structures, or by sending and receiving data on
communication channels.
The "threads" library is implemented on top of the threading facilities
provided by the operating system: POSIX 1003.1c threads for Linux, MacOS, and
other Unix-like systems; Win32 threads for Windows. Only one thread at a time
is allowed to run OCaml code on a particular
domain~\ref{s:par_systhread_interaction}. Hence, opportunities for parallelism
are limited to the parts of the program that run system or C library code.
However, threads provide concurrency and can be used to structure programs as
several communicating processes. Threads also efficiently support concurrent,
overlapping I/O operations.
Programs that use threads must be linked as follows:
\begin{alltt}
ocamlc -I +unix -I +threads \var{other options} unix.cma threads.cma \var{other files}
ocamlopt -I +unix -I +threads \var{other options} unix.cmxa threads.cmxa \var{other files}
\end{alltt}
Compilation units that use the "threads" library must also be compiled with
the "-I +threads" option (see chapter~\ref{c:camlc}).
\begin{linklist}
\libdocitem{Thread}{lightweight threads}
\libdocitem{Event}{first-class synchronous communication}
\end{linklist}
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