signaling a thread to stop

[David Eduardo Gomez Noguera <davidgn@servidor.unam.mx>]

Hello.
I am writting a gtk program that comunicates with a pen pad. when it
starts writting, it starts doing it in "real time", just as the pen
moves, there is flow of data, so a toggle button creates a thread, and
will need to stop it too.

what is the best way to do it?

i read on libc info page pthread_cancel, but didnt understand what does
it exactly do.
I think it signals the thread, then the thread must tests its value to
see if it has been "canceled" and decide upon an action (after the
thread itself was set to CANCEL_ENABLE)what to do, am i right?

the thread needs to stop comunication with the pad, so it does not keep
sending data, and then flush any remaining data when asked to stop. And
unlock a mutex.

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