Is it smart to replace boost::thread and boost::mutex with c++11 equivalents?

Question

There are several differences between Boost.Thread and the C++11 standard thread library:

• Boost supports thread cancellation, C++11 threads do not
• C++11 supports std::async, but Boost does not
• Boost has a boost::shared_mutex for multiple-reader/single-writer locking. The analogous std::shared_timed_mutex is available only since C++14 (N3891), while std::shared_mutex is available only since C++17 (N4508).
• C++11 timeouts are different to Boost timeouts (though this should soon change now Boost.Chrono has been accepted).
• Some of the names are different (e.g. boost::unique_future vs std::future)
• The argument-passing semantics of std::thread are different to boost::thread --- Boost uses boost::bind, which requires copyable arguments. std::thread allows move-only types such as std::unique_ptr to be passed as arguments. Due to the use of boost::bind, the semantics of placeholders such as _1 in nested bind expressions can be different too.
• If you don't explicitly call join() or detach() then the boost::thread destructor and assignment operator will call detach() on the thread object being destroyed/assigned to. With a C++11 std::thread object, this will result in a call to std::terminate() and abort the application.

To clarify the point about move-only parameters, the following is valid C++11, and transfers the ownership of the int from the temporary std::unique_ptr to the parameter of f1 when the new thread is started. However, if you use boost::thread then it won't work, as it uses boost::bind internally, and std::unique_ptr cannot be copied. There is also a bug in the C++11 thread library provided with GCC that prevents this working, as it uses std::bind in the implementation there too.

void f1(std::unique_ptr<int>);
std::thread t1(f1,std::unique_ptr<int>(new int(42)));

If you are using Boost then you can probably switch to C++11 threads relatively painlessly if your compiler supports it (e.g. recent versions of GCC on linux have a mostly-complete implementation of the C++11 thread library available in -std=c++0x mode).

If your compiler doesn't support C++11 threads then you may be able to get a third-party implementation such as Just::Thread, but this is still a dependency.

std::thread is largely modelled after boost::thread, with a few differences:

• boost's non-copyable, one-handle-maps-to-one-os-thread, semantics are retained. But this thread is movable to allow returning thread from factory functions and placing into containers.
• This proposal adds cancellation to the boost::thread, which is a significant complication. This change has a large impact not only on thread but the rest of the C++ threading library as well. It is believed this large change is justifiable because of the benefit.
  • The thread destructor must now call cancel prior to detaching to avoid accidently leaking child threads when parent threads are canceled.
  • An explicit detach member is now required to enable detaching without canceling.
• The concepts of thread handle and thread identity have been separated into two classes (they are the same class in boost::thread). This is to support easier manipulation and storage of thread identity.
• The ability to create a thread id which is guaranteed to compare equal to no other joinable thread has been added (boost::thread does not have this). This is handy for code which wants to know if it is being executed by the same thread as a previous call (recursive mutexes are a concrete example).
• There exists a "back door" to get the native thread handle so that clients can manipulate threads using the underlying OS if desired.

This is from 2007, so some points are no longer valid: boost::thread has a native_handle function now, and, as commenters point out, std::thread doesn't have cancellation anymore.

I could not find any significant differences between boost::mutex and std::mutex.

Enterprise Case

If you are writing software for the enterprise that needs to run on a moderate to large variety of operating systems and consequently build with a variety of compilers and compiler versions (especially relatively old ones) on those operating systems, my suggestion is to stay away from C++11 altogether for now. That means that you cannot use std::thread, and I would recommend using boost::thread.

Basic / Tech Startup Case

If you are writing for one or two operating systems, you know for sure that you will only ever need to build with a modern compiler that mostly supports C++11 (e.g. VS2015, GCC 5.3, Xcode 7), and you are not already dependent on the boost library, then std::thread could be a good option.

My Experience

I am personally partial to hardened, heavily used, highly compatible, highly consistent libraries such as boost versus a very modern alternative. This is especially true for complicated programming subjects such as threading. Also, I have long experienced great success with boost::thread (and boost in general) across a vast array of environments, compilers, threading models, etc. When its my choice, I choose boost.

There is one reason not to migrate to std::thread.

If you are using static linking, std::thread becomes unusable due to these gcc bugs/features:

• http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=52590
• http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=57740

Namely, if you call std::thread::detach or std::thread::join it will lead to either exception or crash, while boost::thread works ok in these cases.