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.\" ========================================================================
.\"
.IX Title "Imager::Threads 3"
.TH Imager::Threads 3 "2014-01-10" "perl v5.26.3" "User Contributed Perl Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
Imager::Threads \- Imager and threads
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
.Vb 3
\&  use Imager;
\&  use threads;
\&  Imager\->preload;
\&
\&  threads\->create(...);
.Ve
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
Starting from version 0.94 Imager attempts to work safely with perl's
\&\f(CW\*(C`ithreads\*(C'\fR.
.PP
Previous versions stored some state in global variables, in particular
the internal error stack.
.PP
However there are some limitations:
.IP "\(bu" 4
Imager's debug malloc isn't thread safe and will never be.  Imager's
debug malloc is disabled by default.
.IP "\(bu" 4
\&\f(CW\*(C`libtiff\*(C'\fR, which Imager uses for \s-1TIFF\s0 file support is not thread
safe, \f(CW\*(C`Imager::File::TIFF\*(C'\fR works around this by single-threading its
access to \f(CW\*(C`libtiff\*(C'\fR.
.IP "\(bu" 4
\&\f(CW\*(C`giflib\*(C'\fR, which Imager uses for \s-1GIF\s0 support is not thread safe before
version 5.  \f(CW\*(C`Imager::File::GIF\*(C'\fR works around this by single threading
its access to \f(CW\*(C`giflib\*(C'\fR.
.IP "\(bu" 4
\&\f(CW\*(C`T1Lib\*(C'\fR, used by one of Imager's font drivers, is not thread safe.
\&\f(CW\*(C`Imager::Font::T1\*(C'\fR works around this by single threading access.
.IP "\(bu" 4
killing a thread reading or writing \s-1TIFF\s0 or \s-1GIF\s0 files, or using T1
fonts through \f(CW\*(C`Imager::Font::T1\*(C'\fR may deadlock other threads when they
attempt to read or write \s-1TIFF\s0 or \s-1GIF\s0 files, or work with Type 1 fonts.
.IP "\(bu" 4
Fill, font, color or I/O layer objects created in one thread are not
valid for use in child threads.  If you manage to duplicate such an
object in another thread, you get to keep both pieces when it breaks.
.PP
Note that if you have another module using \f(CW\*(C`libtiff\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`giflib\*(C'\fR or
\&\f(CW\*(C`t1lib\*(C'\fR it may interact with Imager's use of those libraries in a
threaded environment, since there's no way to co-ordinate access to
the global information \f(CW\*(C`libtiff\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`giflib\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`t1lib\*(C'\fR maintain.
.PP
Imager currently doesn't use threads itself, except for testing its
threads support.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IX Header "SEE ALSO"
Imager, \f(CW\*(C`threads\*(C'\fR
.SH "AUTHOR"
.IX Header "AUTHOR"
Tony Cook <tony@cpan.org>