The Managed Thread Pool

Article
11/03/2006

The ThreadPool class provides your application with a pool of worker threads that are managed by the system, allowing you to concentrate on application tasks rather than thread management. If you have short tasks that require background processing, the managed thread pool is an easy way to take advantage of multiple threads.

Note
For background tasks that interact with the user interface, the .NET Framework version 2.0 also provides the BackgroundWorker class, which communicates using events raised on the user interface thread.

The .NET Framework uses thread pool threads for many purposes, including asynchronous I/O completion, timer callbacks, registered wait operations, asynchronous method calls using delegates, and System.Net socket connections.

When Not to Use Thread Pool Threads

There are several scenarios in which it is appropriate to create and manage your own threads instead of using thread pool threads:

You require a foreground thread.
You require a thread to have a particular priority.
You have tasks that cause the thread to block for long periods of time. The thread pool has a maximum number of threads, so a large number of blocked thread pool threads might prevent tasks from starting.
You need to place threads into a single-threaded apartment. All ThreadPool threads are in the multithreaded apartment.
You need to have a stable identity associated with the thread, or to dedicate a thread to a task.

Thread Pool Characteristics

Thread pool threads are background threads. See Foreground and Background Threads. Each thread uses the default stack size, runs at the default priority, and is in the multithreaded apartment.

There is only one thread pool per process.

Exceptions in Thread Pool Threads

Unhandled exceptions on thread pool threads terminate the process. There are three exceptions to this rule:

A ThreadAbortException is thrown in a thread pool thread, because Abort was called.
An AppDomainUnloadedException is thrown in a thread pool thread, because the application domain is being unloaded.
The common language runtime or a host process terminates the thread.

For more information, see Exceptions in Managed Threads.

Note
In the .NET Framework versions 1.0 and 1.1, the common language runtime silently traps unhandled exceptions in thread pool threads. This might corrupt application state and eventually cause applications to hang, which might be very difficult to debug.

Maximum Number of Thread Pool Threads

The number of operations that can be queued to the thread pool is limited only by available memory; however, the thread pool limits the number of threads that can be active in the process simultaneously. By default, the limit is 25 worker threads per CPU and 1,000 I/O completion threads.

You can control the maximum number of threads by using the GetMaxThreads and SetMaxThreads methods.

Note
In the .NET Framework versions 1.0 and 1.1, the size of the thread pool cannot be set from managed code. Code that hosts the common language runtime can set the size using CorSetMaxThreads, defined in mscoree.h.

Minimum Number of Idle Threads

The thread pool also maintains a minimum number of available threads, even when all threads are idle, so that queued tasks can start immediately. Idle threads in excess of this minimum are terminated to save system resources. By default, one idle thread is maintained per processor.

The thread pool has a built-in delay (half a second in the .NET Framework version 2.0) before starting new idle threads. If your application periodically starts many tasks in a short time, a small increase in the number of idle threads can produce a significant increase in throughput. Setting the number of idle threads too high consumes system resources needlessly.

You can control the number of idle threads maintained by the thread pool by using the GetMinThreads and SetMinThreads methods.

Note
In the .NET Framework version 1.0, the minimum number of idle threads cannot be set.

Skipping Security Checks

The thread pool also provides the ThreadPool.UnsafeQueueUserWorkItem and ThreadPool.UnsafeRegisterWaitForSingleObject methods. Use these methods only when you are certain that the caller's stack is irrelevant to any security checks performed during the execution of the queued task. QueueUserWorkItem and RegisterWaitForSingleObject both capture the caller's stack, which is merged into the stack of the thread pool thread when the thread begins to execute a task. If a security check is required, the entire stack must be checked. Although the check provides safety, it also has a performance cost.

Using the Thread Pool

You use the thread pool by calling ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem from managed code (or CorQueueUserWorkItem from unmanaged code) and passing a WaitCallback delegate representing the method that performs the task. You can also queue work items that are related to a wait operation by using the ThreadPool.RegisterWaitForSingleObject method and passing a WaitHandle that, when signaled or when timed out, raises a call to the method represented by the WaitOrTimerCallback delegate. In both cases, the thread pool uses a background thread to invoke the callback method.

ThreadPool Examples

The three code examples that follow demonstrate the QueueUserWorkItem and RegisterWaitForSingleObject methods.

The first example queues a very simple task, represented by the ThreadProc method, using the QueueUserWorkItem method.

Imports System
Imports System.Threading

Public Class Example
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        ' Queue the task.
        ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem( _
            New WaitCallback(AddressOf ThreadProc))
        
        Console.WriteLine("Main thread does some work, then sleeps.")
        ' If you comment out the Sleep, the main thread exits before
        ' the thread pool task runs.  The thread pool uses background
        ' threads, which do not keep the application running.  (This
        ' is a simple example of a race condition.)
        Thread.Sleep(1000)

        Console.WriteLine("Main thread exits.")
    End Sub

    ' This thread procedure performs the task.
    Shared Sub ThreadProc(stateInfo As Object)
        ' No state object was passed to QueueUserWorkItem, so 
        ' stateInfo is null.
        Console.WriteLine("Hello from the thread pool.")
    End Sub
End Class

using System;
using System.Threading;
public class Example {
    public static void Main() {
        // Queue the task.
        ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(new WaitCallback(ThreadProc));
        
        Console.WriteLine("Main thread does some work, then sleeps.");
        // If you comment out the Sleep, the main thread exits before
        // the thread pool task runs.  The thread pool uses background
        // threads, which do not keep the application running.  (This
        // is a simple example of a race condition.)
        Thread.Sleep(1000);

        Console.WriteLine("Main thread exits.");
    }

    // This thread procedure performs the task.
    static void ThreadProc(Object stateInfo) {
        // No state object was passed to QueueUserWorkItem, so 
        // stateInfo is null.
        Console.WriteLine("Hello from the thread pool.");
    }
}

Supplying Task Data for QueueUserWorkItem

The following code example uses the QueueUserWorkItem method to queue a task and supply the data for the task.

Imports System
Imports System.Threading
' TaskInfo holds state information for a task that will be
' executed by a ThreadPool thread.
Public Class TaskInfo
    ' State information for the task.  These members
    ' can be implemented as read-only properties, read/write
    ' properties with validation, and so on, as required.
    Public Boilerplate As String
    Public Value As Integer

    ' Public constructor provides an easy way to supply all
    ' the information needed for the task.
    Public Sub New(text As String, number As Integer)
        Boilerplate = text
        Value = number
    End Sub
End Class

Public Class Example
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        ' Create an object containing the information needed
        ' for the task.
        Dim ti As New TaskInfo("This report displays the number {0}.", 42)

        ' Queue the task and data.
        If ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem( _
            New WaitCallback(AddressOf ThreadProc), ti) Then
        
            Console.WriteLine("Main thread does some work, then sleeps.")

            ' If you comment out the Sleep, the main thread exits before
            ' the ThreadPool task has a chance to run.  ThreadPool uses 
            ' background threads, which do not keep the application 
            ' running.  (This is a simple example of a race condition.)
            Thread.Sleep(1000)

            Console.WriteLine("Main thread exits.")
        Else
            Console.WriteLine("Unable to queue ThreadPool request.")
        End If
    End Sub

    ' The thread procedure performs the independent task, in this case
    ' formatting and printing a very simple report.
    '
    Shared Sub ThreadProc(stateInfo As Object)
        Dim ti As TaskInfo = CType(stateInfo, TaskInfo)
        Console.WriteLine(ti.Boilerplate, ti.Value)
    End Sub
End Class

using System;
using System.Threading;

// TaskInfo holds state information for a task that will be
// executed by a ThreadPool thread.
public class TaskInfo {
    // State information for the task.  These members
    // can be implemented as read-only properties, read/write
    // properties with validation, and so on, as required.
    public string Boilerplate;
    public int Value;

    // Public constructor provides an easy way to supply all
    // the information needed for the task.
    public TaskInfo(string text, int number) {
        Boilerplate = text;
        Value = number;
    }
}

public class Example {
    public static void Main() {
        // Create an object containing the information needed
        // for the task.
        TaskInfo ti = new TaskInfo("This report displays the number {0}.", 42);

        // Queue the task and data.
        if (ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(new WaitCallback(ThreadProc), ti)) {    
            Console.WriteLine("Main thread does some work, then sleeps.");

            // If you comment out the Sleep, the main thread exits before
            // the ThreadPool task has a chance to run.  ThreadPool uses 
            // background threads, which do not keep the application 
            // running.  (This is a simple example of a race condition.)
            Thread.Sleep(1000);

            Console.WriteLine("Main thread exits.");
        }
        else {
            Console.WriteLine("Unable to queue ThreadPool request."); 
        }
    }

    // The thread procedure performs the independent task, in this case
    // formatting and printing a very simple report.
    //
    static void ThreadProc(Object stateInfo) {
        TaskInfo ti = (TaskInfo) stateInfo;
        Console.WriteLine(ti.Boilerplate, ti.Value); 
    }
}

RegisterWaitForSingleObject

The following example demonstrates several threading features.

Queuing a task for execution by ThreadPool threads, with the RegisterWaitForSingleObject method.
Signaling a task to execute, with AutoResetEvent. See EventWaitHandle, AutoResetEvent, and ManualResetEvent.
Handling both time-outs and signals with a WaitOrTimerCallback delegate.
Canceling a queued task with RegisteredWaitHandle.

Imports System
Imports System.Threading

' TaskInfo contains data that will be passed to the callback
' method.
Public Class TaskInfo
    public Handle As RegisteredWaitHandle = Nothing
    public OtherInfo As String = "default"
End Class

Public Class Example
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        ' The main thread uses AutoResetEvent to signal the
        ' registered wait handle, which executes the callback
        ' method.
        Dim ev As New AutoResetEvent(false)

        Dim ti As New TaskInfo()
        ti.OtherInfo = "First task"
        ' The TaskInfo for the task includes the registered wait
        ' handle returned by RegisterWaitForSingleObject.  This
        ' allows the wait to be terminated when the object has
        ' been signaled once (see WaitProc).
        ti.Handle = ThreadPool.RegisterWaitForSingleObject( _
            ev, _
            New WaitOrTimerCallback(AddressOf WaitProc), _
            ti, _
            1000, _
            false _
        )

        ' The main thread waits about three seconds, to demonstrate 
        ' the time-outs on the queued task, and then signals.
        Thread.Sleep(3100)
        Console.WriteLine("Main thread signals.")
        ev.Set()

        ' The main thread sleeps, which should give the callback
        ' method time to execute.  If you comment out this line, the
        ' program usually ends before the ThreadPool thread can execute.
        Thread.Sleep(1000)
        ' If you start a thread yourself, you can wait for it to end
        ' by calling Thread.Join.  This option is not available with 
        ' thread pool threads.
    End Sub
   
    ' The callback method executes when the registered wait times out,
    ' or when the WaitHandle (in this case AutoResetEvent) is signaled.
    ' WaitProc unregisters the WaitHandle the first time the event is 
    ' signaled.
    Public Shared Sub WaitProc(state As Object, timedOut As Boolean)
        ' The state object must be cast to the correct type, because the
        ' signature of the WaitOrTimerCallback delegate specifies type
        ' Object.
        Dim ti As TaskInfo = CType(state, TaskInfo)

        Dim cause As String = "TIMED OUT"
        If Not timedOut Then
            cause = "SIGNALED"
            ' If the callback method executes because the WaitHandle is
            ' signaled, stop future execution of the callback method
            ' by unregistering the WaitHandle.
            If Not ti.Handle Is Nothing Then
                ti.Handle.Unregister(Nothing)
            End If
        End If 

        Console.WriteLine("WaitProc( {0} ) executes on thread {1}; cause = {2}.", _
            ti.OtherInfo, _
            Thread.CurrentThread.GetHashCode().ToString(), _
            cause _
        )
    End Sub
End Class

using System;
using System.Threading;

// TaskInfo contains data that will be passed to the callback
// method.
public class TaskInfo {
    public RegisteredWaitHandle Handle = null;
    public string OtherInfo = "default";
}

public class Example {
    public static void Main(string[] args) {
        // The main thread uses AutoResetEvent to signal the
        // registered wait handle, which executes the callback
        // method.
        AutoResetEvent ev = new AutoResetEvent(false);

        TaskInfo ti = new TaskInfo();
        ti.OtherInfo = "First task";
        // The TaskInfo for the task includes the registered wait
        // handle returned by RegisterWaitForSingleObject.  This
        // allows the wait to be terminated when the object has
        // been signaled once (see WaitProc).
        ti.Handle = ThreadPool.RegisterWaitForSingleObject(
            ev,
            new WaitOrTimerCallback(WaitProc),
            ti,
            1000,
            false
        );

        // The main thread waits three seconds, to demonstrate the
        // time-outs on the queued thread, and then signals.
        Thread.Sleep(3100);
        Console.WriteLine("Main thread signals.");
        ev.Set();

        // The main thread sleeps, which should give the callback
        // method time to execute.  If you comment out this line, the
        // program usually ends before the ThreadPool thread can execute.
        Thread.Sleep(1000);
        // If you start a thread yourself, you can wait for it to end
        // by calling Thread.Join.  This option is not available with 
        // thread pool threads.
    }
   
    // The callback method executes when the registered wait times out,
    // or when the WaitHandle (in this case AutoResetEvent) is signaled.
    // WaitProc unregisters the WaitHandle the first time the event is 
    // signaled.
    public static void WaitProc(object state, bool timedOut) {
        // The state object must be cast to the correct type, because the
        // signature of the WaitOrTimerCallback delegate specifies type
        // Object.
        TaskInfo ti = (TaskInfo) state;

        string cause = "TIMED OUT";
        if (!timedOut) {
            cause = "SIGNALED";
            // If the callback method executes because the WaitHandle is
            // signaled, stop future execution of the callback method
            // by unregistering the WaitHandle.
            if (ti.Handle != null)
                ti.Handle.Unregister(null);
        } 

        Console.WriteLine("WaitProc( {0} ) executes on thread {1}; cause = {2}.",
            ti.OtherInfo, 
            Thread.CurrentThread.GetHashCode().ToString(), 
            cause
        );
    }
}

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The Managed Thread Pool

When Not to Use Thread Pool Threads

Thread Pool Characteristics

Exceptions in Thread Pool Threads

Maximum Number of Thread Pool Threads

Minimum Number of Idle Threads

Skipping Security Checks

Using the Thread Pool

ThreadPool Examples

Supplying Task Data for QueueUserWorkItem

RegisterWaitForSingleObject

See Also

Reference

Concepts

Other Resources

Additional resources