The IMSL C Stat Library is thread safe based on OpenMP. That means it can be safely called from a multithreaded application if the calling program adheres to a few important guidelines. In particular, IMSL C Stat Library’s implementation of signal handling, error handling, and I/O must be understood.

C Stat Library’s error handling in a multithreaded application behaves similarly to how it behaves in a single-threaded application. The major difference is that an error stack exists for each thread calling C Stat Library functions. The result of separate error stacks for each thread is greater control of the error handler options for each thread. Each thread can set its own options for the C Stat Library error handler using imsls_error_options. For an example of setting error handler options for separate threads, see Chapter 15, Utilities, Example 3 of imsls_error_options.

A number of routines in C Stat Library can be used to produce output. The function imsls_output_file can be used to control the file to which the output is directed. In an application with a single thread of execution, a single call to imsls_output_file can be used to set the file to which the output will be directed. In a multithreaded application each thread must call imsls_output_file to change the default setting of where output will be directed. See Chapter 15, Utilities, Example 2 of imsls_output_file for more details.