pthreads: How to handle signals in a main thread that creates other threads? (specific code shown)

I have a main thread, which stays in the main function, i.e. I do not create it specifically as in pthread_create, because it's not necessary. This thread opens a file, then creates other threads, waits for them to finish their work (i.e., does the join), cleans up everything (pointers, semaphores, conditional variables and so on...)开发者_开发技巧.

Now, I have to apply this code to block SIGINT:

sigset_t set; 
int sig; 
sigemptyset(&set); 
sigaddset(&set, SIGINT); 
pthread_sigmask(SIG_BLOCK, &set, NULL); 

while (1) { 
        sigwait(&set, &sig); 
        switch (sig) { 
                case SIGINT: 
                        /* handle interrupts */ 
                        break; 
                default: 
                        /* unexpected signal */ 
                        pthread_exit((void *)-1); 
        } 
}

and it says You must use the main() function to launch the N+1 threads and wait for their completion. If a SIGINT signal arrives at the program it should be handled by the main thread in order to shutdown the program and its threads a clean way

My doubt is how should I put this code? Is it wrong to put it on a background thread created in main() ? Because I already have a cicle, with an exit flag, that creates and join all the other threads, so I don't understand if this code goes exactly to the main function where all is done/called to initiate the program. If I put it on a thread, with this code and the handler to clean, is this considerated as busy waiting?

"It says"? What says? The homework assignment?

The first thing you should understand about programming with threads and signals is that you have very little control over which thread a signal is delivered to. If your main thread wants to be the one to get the signal, it should block the signal before creating any new threads and possible unblock it after it finishes creating them, to ensure that the signal is not delivered to them.

However, if you're following best practices for signal handlers, it probably doesn't matter which thread handles the signal. All the signal handler should do is set a global flag or write a byte to a pipe (whichever works best to get the main thread to notice that the signal happened. (Note that you cannot use condition variables or any locking primitives from signal handlers!) As in the code fragment in your question, blocking the signal and using sigwait is also possible (be aware, again, that it needs to be blocked in all threads), but most programs can't afford to stop and wait just for signals; they need to wait for condition variables and/or input from files as well. One way to solve this issue is to make a dedicated thread to call sigwait, but that's rather wasteful. A better solution, if you're already using select, would be to switch to pselect that can wait for signals as well as file descriptor events (at the same time).

Rather than asking us for the answers (which would be hard to give anyway without seeing the full program you're trying to make this work with), you'd be much better off trying to really understand the intricacies of signals with threads.