Closing dynamically created threads - c

Question

This is for an Operating Systems programming assignment. I'm attempting to read n number of files, use threads to search each file for a number of occurrences for a specific character.
./mycount j new.txt some.txt here.txt hello.txt
The output for my test code as is should be:
argumentCount: 6
threadCount: 4
pthread_create() for thread 0 returns: 0
Thread 1
pthread_create() for thread 1 returns: 0
Thread 2
pthread_create() for thread 2 returns: 0
Thread 3
pthread_create() for thread 3 returns: 0
Thread 4
However each execution of mycount is different, with the last thread usually not executing/printing. Either that or they'll print sporadically, in tandem, etc.
I'm attempting to utilize a mutex to ensure the integrity of my data but I'm not sure what's really happening behind the scenes.
How do I ensure that everything finishes the same way each time? The last thread always returns 0, but it sometimes won't execute the function I give it completely.
Code:
//GLOBALS
int occurrences = 0;
//PROTOTYPES
void *scanFile( void *filePtr );
//Initialize space for mutex.
pthread_mutex_t mutex = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
//Receive arguments from .exe call
void main ( int argumentCount, char *argumentVariables[] )
{
//Exit if argumentCount is > 50.
if (argumentCount > 50)
{
perror("Too many arguments. Enter less than 50.\n");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("argumentCount: %d \n", argumentCount);
//Instantiate variables.
//i - iterator
//*newCommand - Used to hold string value of first command entered.
//*newVector - Used to hold string of the rest of the commands. Is a vector.
int i;
char *searchCharacter;
char *newVector[argumentCount];
//Iterate through command line arguments and split them.
for (i = 0; i < argumentCount; i++)
{
searchCharacter = argumentVariables[1];
if (i < argumentCount - 1)
{
newVector[i] = argumentVariables[1 + i];
}
else
{
newVector[i] = NULL;
}
}
//Exit if newest command is NULL.
if (searchCharacter == NULL)
{
perror("No character entered!\n");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
int threads = argumentCount - 2;
printf("threadCount: %d \n", threads);
pthread_t * thread = malloc(sizeof(pthread_t)*threads);
for (int i = 0; i < threads; i++)
{
int ret;
char *message = "Thread";
ret = pthread_create(&thread[i], NULL, scanFile, (void*) message);
if (ret != 0)
{
printf("Error - pthread_create() return code: %d\n", ret);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("pthread_create() for thread %d returns: %d\n", i, ret);
}
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
void *scanFile( void *filePtr )
{
pthread_mutex_lock( &mutex );
char *message;
message = (char *) filePtr;
occurrences += 1;
printf("%s %d\n", message, occurrences);
pthread_mutex_unlock( &mutex );
}

Answer 1

Found the solution thanks to user2864740 and Ken Thomases.
Added:
for (int j = 0; j < threads; j++)
{
//Join the threads so all the data is good to go.
pthread_join(thread[j], NULL);
}
Correction:
for (int i = 0; i < threads; i++)
{
request[i].file = argumentVariables[i + 2];
request[i].character = searchCharacter;
//Create the thread. Any output from the integer newThread is an error code.
newThread = pthread_create(&thread[i], NULL, *scanFile, &request[i]);
if (newThread != 0)
{
printf("Error - pthread_create() return code: %d\n", newThread);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
}
for (int j = 0; j < threads; j++)
{
//Join the threads so all the data is good to go.
pthread_join(thread[j], NULL);
}