title: mingw-w64 threads: posix vs win32
body: <p>I'm installing mingw-w64 on Windows and there are two options: win32 threads and posix threads. I know what is the difference between win32 threads and pthreads but I don't understand what is the difference between these two options. I doubt that if I will choose posix threads it will prevent me from calling WinAPI functions like CreateThread.</p>
  
  <p>It seems that this option specify which threading API will be used by some program or library, but by what? By GCC, libstdc++ or by something else?</p>
  
  <p>I found this:
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13212342/whats-the-difference-between-thread-posixs-and-thread-win32-in-gcc-port-of-windo">Whats the difference between thread_posixs and thread_win32 in gcc port of windows?</a></p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>In short, for this version of mingw, the threads-posix release will use the posix API and allow the use of std::thread, and the threads-win32 will use the win32 API, and disable the std::thread part of the standard.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Ok, if I will select win32 threads then std::thread will be unavailable but win32 threads will still be used. But used by what?</p>