A thread is unit of execution of a process. A process can execute multiple threads. The Process that executes only one thread, it is termed as a single threaded process. Multiple threads can be executed by a process and can execute concurrently. Parallel execution of threads is possible on a multi-processor system.
A depiction of threads in Linux (from Linux Programming Interface) is shown below.
In the following articles, we discuss the basics of Posix threads in Linux (termed pthreads) and also the pros and cons of multi-threading.
Reference
- Linux System Programming – Robert Love
- Linux Programming Interface – Michael Kerrisk