How to get a pthread name in C - c

Question

Say I create a pthread as pthread_t lift_3; and pthread_create(&lift_1, NULL, lift, share);. When it goes into lift(), how can I get it the function to print the actual name of the thread? Or set a name for the thread?
I have tried using pthread_self() to acquire the id, but it instead gives random numbers
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <pthread.h>
void* lift(void* ptr)
{
printf("thread name = %c\n", pthread_self());
pthread_exit(NULL);
return NULL;
}
int main()
{
pthread_t lift_1; // declare thread
pthread_create(&lift_1, NULL, lift, NULL);
pthread_join(lift_1, NULL);
return 0;
}
The expected outcome should be thread name = lift_1

Answer 1

You're looking for the "name of the function that the thread started in".
There is no such thing as "thread name".
When calling pthread_self, you get the "id" of the thread, which something like a randomly-generated name.
To simulate the desired behavior in the past, I wrote the following code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <pthread.h>
// This lines means a variable that is created per-thread
__thread const char* thread_name;
void* lift(void* ptr)
{
// Paste this line in the beginning of every thread routine.
thread_name = __FUNCTION__;
// Note two changes in this line
printf("thread name = %s\n", thread_name);
pthread_exit(NULL);
return NULL;
}
int main()
{
// Added line
thread_name = __FUNCTION__;
pthread_t lift_1; // declare thread
pthread_create(&lift_1, NULL, lift, NULL);
pthread_join(lift_1, NULL);
//Added line
printf("Original thread name: %s\n", thread_name);
return 0;
}