progschj/threadpool

★ 8,740C++Audience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((threadpool))
    What it does
      Queue tasks via enqueue
      Return std future
      Reuse worker threads
    Tech Stack
      C++11
      std thread
      std future
    Use Cases
      Parallel task processing
      Reference implementation
      Copy-paste starting point
    Audience
      C++ developers
      Students learning concurrency

mindmap root((threadpool)) What it does Queue tasks via enqueue Return std future Reuse worker threads Tech Stack C++11 std thread std future Use Cases Parallel task processing Reference implementation Copy-paste starting point Audience C++ developers Students learning concurrency

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Add parallel background task execution to a C++ application without managing thread lifecycles manually.

USE CASE 2

Study a short, readable reference implementation of the thread pool pattern in modern C++.

USE CASE 3

Use as a copy-paste starting point for async task scheduling in a C++ project.

USE CASE 4

Process a batch of independent CPU-bound tasks concurrently and collect all results.

Tech stack

C++C++11

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

Header-only style with no external dependencies, needs a C++11-capable compiler.

No license information is mentioned in the explanation.

In plain English

ThreadPool is a small C++ library that gives your program a pool of worker threads ready to run jobs in the background. Instead of creating and destroying a thread every time you need to do something in parallel, you create the pool once and keep reusing those threads for many tasks. This cuts down on the overhead that comes with spinning up threads on demand. The library targets C++11, which is a version of the C++ language standard released in 2011. C++11 introduced built-in support for threads and futures, and this project builds directly on those features without pulling in any external framework. A future is a placeholder that holds the result of a task once it finishes, so you can hand work off to the pool and retrieve the answer later without blocking your main program right away. Usage is brief: you create a ThreadPool with a number of worker threads, submit a function using enqueue, and get back a future. When you need the result, you call get on that future. The README shows a minimal example where a pool of four threads accepts a simple function and returns its value. The README is sparse and does not document configuration options, thread-safety guarantees beyond the basic usage, error handling, or build instructions in detail. The project appears intended as a reference implementation or a copy-paste starting point rather than a fully documented library. If you need a thread pool for a C++ project and want to understand the mechanics behind the pattern, this code is a short and readable example to study.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Using progschj/threadpool, write a C++11 program that creates a pool of 4 threads, submits 10 tasks that each return an integer, and prints all results using std::future.

Prompt 2

How do I add progschj/threadpool to my CMake project? Show me the CMakeLists.txt snippet and a minimal usage example.

Prompt 3

Rewrite this single-threaded loop to run concurrently using progschj/threadpool: for(auto& item : items) process(item),

Prompt 4

What are the limitations of progschj/threadpool compared to a production thread-pool library? When should I use it and when should I look elsewhere?

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