+=encoding utf8
+
=head1 NAME
perlthrtut - Tutorial on threads in Perl
disappointed or confused. Possibly both.
This is not to say that Perl threads are completely different from
-everything that's ever come before -- they're not. Perl's threading
+everything that's ever come before. They're not. Perl's threading
model owes a lot to other thread models, especially POSIX. Just as
Perl is not C, though, Perl threads are not POSIX threads. So if you
find yourself looking for mutexes, or thread priorities, it's time to
=head2 Basic Thread Support
-Thread support is a Perl compile-time option -- it's something that's
+Thread support is a Perl compile-time option. It's something that's
turned on or off when Perl is built at your site, rather than when
your programs are compiled. If your Perl wasn't compiled with thread
support enabled, then any attempt to use threads will fail.
NOTE: In the example above, the thread returns a list, thus necessitating
that the thread creation call be made in list context (i.e., C<my ($thr)>).
-See L<threads/"$thr->join()"> and L<threads/"THREAD CONTEXT"> for more
+See L<< threads/"$thr->join()" >> and L<threads/"THREAD CONTEXT"> for more
details on thread context and return values.
=head2 Ignoring A Thread
thread creation can be quite expensive, both in terms of memory usage and
time spent in creation. The ideal way to reduce these costs is to have a
relatively short number of long-lived threads, all created fairly early
-on -- before the base thread has accumulated too much data. Of course, this
+on (before the base thread has accumulated too much data). Of course, this
may not always be possible, so compromises have to be made. However, after
a thread has been created, its performance and extra memory usage should
be little different than ordinary code.
of Perl. Calls often suffering from not being thread-safe include:
C<localtime()>, C<gmtime()>, functions fetching user, group and
network information (such as C<getgrent()>, C<gethostent()>,
-C<getnetent()> and so on), C<readdir()>,
-C<rand()>, and C<srand()> -- in general, calls that depend on some global
-external state.
+C<getnetent()> and so on), C<readdir()>, C<rand()>, and C<srand()>. In
+general, calls that depend on some global external state.
If the system Perl is compiled in has thread-safe variants of such
calls, they will be used. Beyond that, Perl is at the mercy of