Why pthread Code Doesn't Run on Windows Natively - thesmartgirl/philo GitHub Wiki

You're correct — code written using pthread is not portable to Windows out of the box. Here's why, and what your options are:

1. Windows doesn't support POSIX Threads (pthreads) in its standard libraries.

2. The Windows API for threads (CreateThread, WaitForSingleObject, etc.) is completely different from the pthread_* family.

3. Windows uses its own models for mutexes, TLS, condition variables, etc.

So a pthread program won't compile or run on Windows unless you take extra steps.

• Cygwin provides a full POSIX environment on Windows, including pthread.h.

• MinGW-w64 includes a lightweight POSIX thread implementation (pthreads-win32).

• You can compile pthread-based code on Windows using:

  gcc -pthread mycode.c -o myprogram.exe
  

✅ Pros:

• Minimal changes to your existing code.

• Still uses pthread_create, etc.

❌ Cons:

• Adds a dependency layer.

• Not true native Windows performance.

• C11 threads.h: Standardized in C11, some compilers support it (thrd_create, etc.).

• C++11 std::thread: Native and portable, works on Linux, Windows, macOS.

• Boost.Thread: Full-featured, cross-platform thread abstraction in C++.

✅ Best choice for portable code going forward.

You can write a wrapper layer like this:

#ifdef _WIN32
#include <windows.h>
typedef HANDLE thread_t;
#define THREAD_FUNC_RETURN DWORD WINAPI
#else
#include <pthread.h>
typedef pthread_t thread_t;
#define THREAD_FUNC_RETURN void *
#endif

Then in your code:

THREAD_FUNC_RETURN my_thread(void *arg) {
    // shared logic
}

✅ This allows you to write thread-agnostic code by wrapping platform-specific APIs.

If you'd like, I can help you rewrite a pthread example into portable std::thread C++ or show how to set up pthreads on Windows using MinGW.