pthread_equal(3)

💖 pthread_equal(3) — Library Functions Manual 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the glow-up of <pthread.h> 🦋 this one's a lil baby function but she's iconic and honestly kinda underrated. it lives in the Library Functions Manual, and yes we're gonna read the whole thing together, no skipping, no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

pthread_equal — compare thread IDs 💅

📚 LIBRARY 📚

POSIX threads library (that's libpthread, and you link it with -lpthread, don't forget her 🎀)

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <pthread.h>

int pthread_equal(pthread_t t1, pthread_t t2);

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so like, pthread_equal() does exactly one thing and it does it flawlessly: it compares two thread identifiers. two IDs walk in, and this function is the vibe check 🌈

🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

• if the two thread IDs are equal, pthread_equal() returns a nonzero value ⭐
• otherwise, it returns 0

that's it. that's the whole personality. and honestly? obsessed.

💀 ERRORS 💀

this function always succeeds. periodt. there is no error path, she simply cannot fail, main character energy only 👑

🫶 ATTRIBUTES 🫶

for the explanation of the terms used in this section, go peek at attributes(7) (i'll wait, bestie 🧚).

• Interface: pthread_equal()
• Attribute: Thread safety
• Value: MT-Safe

ngl MT-Safe is the green flag we're all looking for in a libc function 💚

📜 STANDARDS 📜

POSIX.1-2008.

🎀 HISTORY 🎀

POSIX.1-2001. she's been around, she's a legacy queen, we respect the elders 🔥

👑 NOTES 👑

okay this is the part that actually matters, listen up fr fr:

pthread_equal() is necessary because thread IDs should be considered opaque 🙈 — which means there is no portable way for applications to directly compare two pthread_t values themselves. like, don't just go t1 == t2 with your bare hands, bestie, that's not portable. use the function. she exists specifically for this. use. the. function. 💅

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• pthread_create(3)
• pthread_self(3)
• pthreads(7)

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and that's the whole page, you ate that 🍓 this lil writeup came from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2025-05-17 — stan the maintainers, they feed us 💖✨ bye bestie!! 🦋🎀