Thread.IsBackground Property

Definition

Gets or sets a value indicating whether or not a thread is a background thread.

C#
public bool IsBackground { get; set; }

Property Value

true if this thread is or is to become a background thread; otherwise, false.

Exceptions

The thread is dead.

Examples

The following example contrasts the behavior of foreground and background threads. It creates a foreground thread and a background thread. The foreground thread keeps the process running until completes its for loop and terminates. However, as the output from the example shows, because the foreground thread has finished execution, the process is terminated before the background thread has completed execution.

C#
using System;
using System.Threading;

class Example
{
    static void Main()
    {
        BackgroundTest shortTest = new BackgroundTest(10);
        Thread foregroundThread = 
            new Thread(new ThreadStart(shortTest.RunLoop));

        BackgroundTest longTest = new BackgroundTest(50);
        Thread backgroundThread = 
            new Thread(new ThreadStart(longTest.RunLoop));
        backgroundThread.IsBackground = true;

        foregroundThread.Start();
        backgroundThread.Start();
    }
}

class BackgroundTest
{
    int maxIterations;

    public BackgroundTest(int maxIterations)
    {
        this.maxIterations = maxIterations;
    }

    public void RunLoop()
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < maxIterations; i++) {
            Console.WriteLine("{0} count: {1}", 
                Thread.CurrentThread.IsBackground ? 
                   "Background Thread" : "Foreground Thread", i);
            Thread.Sleep(250);
        }
        Console.WriteLine("{0} finished counting.", 
                          Thread.CurrentThread.IsBackground ? 
                          "Background Thread" : "Foreground Thread");
    }
}
// The example displays output like the following:
//    Foreground Thread count: 0
//    Background Thread count: 0
//    Background Thread count: 1
//    Foreground Thread count: 1
//    Foreground Thread count: 2
//    Background Thread count: 2
//    Foreground Thread count: 3
//    Background Thread count: 3
//    Background Thread count: 4
//    Foreground Thread count: 4
//    Foreground Thread count: 5
//    Background Thread count: 5
//    Foreground Thread count: 6
//    Background Thread count: 6
//    Background Thread count: 7
//    Foreground Thread count: 7
//    Background Thread count: 8
//    Foreground Thread count: 8
//    Foreground Thread count: 9
//    Background Thread count: 9
//    Background Thread count: 10
//    Foreground Thread count: 10
//    Background Thread count: 11
//    Foreground Thread finished counting.

Remarks

A thread is either a background thread or a foreground thread. Background threads are identical to foreground threads, except that background threads do not prevent a process from terminating. Once all foreground threads belonging to a process have terminated, the common language runtime ends the process. Any remaining background threads are stopped and do not complete.

By default, the following threads execute in the foreground (that is, their IsBackground property returns false):

  • The primary thread (or main application thread).

  • All threads created by calling a Thread class constructor.

By default, the following threads execute in the background (that is, their IsBackground property returns true):

  • Thread pool threads, which are a pool of worker threads maintained by the runtime. You can configure the thread pool and schedule work on thread pool threads by using the ThreadPool class.

    Note

    Task-based asynchronous operations automatically execute on thread pool threads.

  • All threads that enter the managed execution environment from unmanaged code.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0, 2.1

See also