GetExitCodeThread function (processthreadsapi.h)

Article
02/22/2024

Retrieves the termination status of the specified thread.

Syntax

BOOL GetExitCodeThread(
  [in]  HANDLE  hThread,
  [out] LPDWORD lpExitCode
);

Parameters

[in] hThread

A handle to the thread.

The handle must have the THREAD_QUERY_INFORMATION or THREAD_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION access right. For more information, see Thread Security and Access Rights.

Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP: The handle must have the THREAD_QUERY_INFORMATION access right.

[out] lpExitCode

A pointer to a variable to receive the thread termination status. For more information, see Remarks.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.

If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

This function returns immediately. If the specified thread has not terminated and the function succeeds, the status returned is STILL_ACTIVE. If the thread has terminated and the function succeeds, the status returned is one of the following values:

The exit value specified in the ExitThread or TerminateThread function.
The return value from the thread function.
The exit value of the thread's process.

Important The GetExitCodeThread function returns a valid error code defined by the application only after the thread terminates. Therefore, an application should not use STILL_ACTIVE (259) as an error code. If a thread returns STILL_ACTIVE (259) as an error code, applications that test for this value could interpret it to mean that the thread is still running and continue to test for the completion of the thread after the thread has terminated, which could put the application into an infinite loop. To avoid this problem, callers should call the GetExitCodeThread function only after the thread has been confirmed to have exited. Use the WaitForSingleObject function with a wait duration of zero to determine whether a thread has exited.

Windows Phone 8.1: This function is supported for Windows Phone Store apps on Windows Phone 8.1 and later.

Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2: This function is supported for Windows Store apps on Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, and later.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows XP [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps \| UWP apps]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	processthreadsapi.h (include Windows.h on Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2)
Library	Kernel32.lib; WindowsPhoneCore.lib on Windows Phone 8.1
DLL	Kernel32.dll; KernelBase.dll on Windows Phone 8.1