pthread's - check for running thread

To create a thread one uses pthread_create. To terminate it, pthread_cancel, to wait for it's termination pthread_join... but how do we check if a thread has exit, (or not) by it's id, without blocking on the function's call ?
In windows it would be WaitForSignleObject(thread_handle,0)

How to determine if thread has died having its pthread_t tid?

gg

the cleanup stuff gave me a good ideia.. instead of calling the thread function, I'll call my own function which calls the thread function. And mine will then signal a var.
Thank you