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12.6 Sessions/Debugging

If the user has multiple views onto the same Lisp image (for example, using multiple terminals, or a windowing system, or network access) they are typically set up as multiple sessions such that each view has its own collection of foreground/background/stopped threads. A thread which wishes to create a new session can use sb-thread:with-new-session to remove itself from the current session (which it shares with its parent and siblings) and create a fresh one. # See also sb-thread:make-listener-thread.

Within a single session, threads arbitrate between themselves for the user's attention. A thread may be in one of three notional states: foreground, background, or stopped. When a background process attempts to print a repl prompt or to enter the debugger, it will stop and print a message saying that it has stopped. The user at his leisure may switch to that thread to find out what it needs. If a background thread enters the debugger, selecting any restart will put it back into the background before it resumes. Arbitration for the input stream is managed by calls to sb-thread:get-foreground (which may block) and sb-thread:release-foreground.

sb-ext:quit terminates all threads in the current session, but leaves other sessions running.