Powershell command noun: threadJob

Collecting output produced by threads

$threads = @()
foreach ($t in 'seven', 'eight-three', 'three', 'forty-eight', 'nine', 'one-hundred', 'twelve') {

   $threads += start-threadJob {
      param($arg)
      start-sleep (get-random -maximum 10)
      return "$arg has $($arg.length) characters"
   } -argumentList $t
}

#
# Wait until threads are finished
#
$null = wait-job -job $threads

foreach ($thread in $threads) {
   receive-job $thread
}

Starting jobs with and without a mutex

$shared = @{accu = 0}

$nofThreads = 10
$threads    = @()

for ($t = 0; $t -lt $nofThreads; $t++) {

   $threads += start-threadJob {

      $useMutex = $false   ###  Change here!  ###

      if ($useMutex) {
         [bool] $newMutex = $false
          $mtx = new-object System.Threading.Mutex($true, 'tq84-mtx', [ref] $newMutex)
      }

      for ($i = 0; $i -lt 10 ; $i++) {

          $shared = $using:shared

          if ($useMutex) {
             $mtx.WaitOne()
          }
          $accu_ = $shared.accu
          $accu_ = $accu_ + 1
          start-sleep -milliseconds 1  # Give race condition more chance to occur
          $shared.accu = $accu_

          if ($useMutex) {
             $mtx.RelaseMutex()
          }

          $cur ++
      }
   }
}

$t = 0
while ($t -lt $nofThreads) {
   if ($threads[$t].state -eq 'Completed') {
      $t++
   }
   else {
      start-sleep 1
   }
}

write-host "accu = $($shared.accu)"

global: variables

function thr($i) {
   start-threadJob -scriptBlock {
       param($p)

       function set-tid {
           $global:tid = [System.Threading.Thread]::CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId
       }

       set-tid

       write-host "start of $p, tid = $tid"
       start-sleep 2
       write-host "  end of $p, tid = $tid"

   } -streamingHost $host -argumentList $i -throttleLimit 9
}

$threads = 1 .. 9 | % { thr $_ }
$null = wait-job $threads

See also