These two functions are used to unblock threads blocked on a condition variable.

The pthread_cond_signal() call unblocks at least one of the threads that are blocked on the specified condition variable cond (if any threads are blocked on cond).

The pthread_cond_broadcast() call unblocks all threads currently blocked on the specified condition variable cond.

If more than one thread is blocked on a condition variable, the scheduling policy determines the order in which threads are unblocked. When each thread unblocked as a result of a pthread_cond_signal() or pthread_cond_broadcast() returns from its call to pthread_cond_wait() or pthread_cond_timedwait(), the thread owns the mutex with which it called pthread_cond_wait() or pthread_cond_timedwait(). The thread(s) that are unblocked contend for the mutex according to the scheduling policy (if applicable), and as if each had called pthread_mutex_lock().

The pthread_cond_signal() or pthread_cond_broadcast() functions may be called by a thread whether or not it currently owns the mutex that threads calling pthread_cond_wait() or pthread_cond_timedwait() have associated with the condition variable during their waits; however, if predictable scheduling behavior is required, then that mutex is locked by the thread calling pthread_cond_signal() or pthread_cond_broadcast().

The pthread_cond_signal() and pthread_cond_broadcast() functions have no effect if there are no threads currently blocked on cond.

If successful, the pthread_cond_signal() and pthread_cond_broadcast() functions return 0. Otherwise, an error number is returned to indicate the error.

The pthread_cond_signal() and pthread_cond_broadcast() function may fail if:

EINVAL

The value cond does not refer to an initialized condition variable. This condition is not reported.

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

condition(3THR), pthread_cond_init(3THR), pthread_cond_wait(3THR), pthread_cond_timedwait(3THR), attributes(5), standards(5)