Check out Thread::Cancel. Alternatively, use select to multiplex between checking for the $die flag and reading input. Thirdly, use Gtk's IO dispatcher instead of threads.

Pseudo-code for the select solution: 

my $sel = new IO::Select;
$sel->add($sock);
while (1) {
    if ($sel->can_read(1)) { # 1 second timeout
        # do read, appending to buffer
        sysread($sock, $buf, 1024, length($buf));
        # check for a complete line, process command, etc.
    }
    last if ($die);
}

[download]

Update: Why can't you detach the thread? You're not returning any values from it. If you need to you can have it signal its completion by setting a shared variable.

In reply to Re: Joining a Thread in w While loop by pc88mxer
in thread Joining a Thread in w While loop by deadpickle

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.