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pthread_mutex_lock()

Lock a mutex

Synopsis:

#include <pthread.h>

int pthread_mutex_lock( pthread_mutex_t* mutex );

Arguments:

mutex: A pointer to the pthread_mutex_t object that you want to lock.

Library:

libc

Use the -l c option to qcc to link against this library. This library is usually included automatically.

The pthread_mutex_lock() function locks the mutex object referenced by mutex. If the mutex is already locked, then the calling thread blocks until it has acquired the mutex. When the function returns, the mutex object is locked and owned by the calling thread.

If the mutex allows recursive behavior, a call to pthread_mutex_lock() while you own the mutex succeeds. You can allow recursive behavior by:

statically initializing the mutex to PTHREAD_RMUTEX_INITIALIZER
Or:
using pthread_mutexattr_setrecursive() to set the attribute to PTHREAD_RECURSIVE_ALLOW before calling pthread_mutex_init().

If the mutex is recursive, you must call pthread_mutex_unlock() for each corresponding call to lock the mutex. The default POSIX behavior doesn't allow recursive mutexes, and returns EDEADLK.

If a signal is delivered to a thread that's waiting for a mutex, the thread resumes waiting for the mutex on returning from the signal handler.

Returns:

EOK: Success.
EAGAIN: Insufficient system resources available to lock the mutex.
EDEADLK: The calling thread already owns mutex, and the mutex doesn't allow recursive behavior.
EFAULT: A fault occurred when the kernel tried to access the buffers you provided.
EINVAL: Invalid mutex mutex.
ETIMEDOUT: A kernel timeout unblocked the call.

Examples:

This example shows how you can use a mutex to synchronize access to a shared variable. In this example, function1() and function2() both attempt to access and modify the global variable count. Either thread could be interrupted between modifying count and assigning its value to the local tmp variable. Locking mutex prevents this from happening; if one thread has mutex locked, the other thread waits until it's unlocked, before continuing.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <pthread.h>

pthread_mutex_t mutex = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
int count = 0;

void* function1( void* arg )
{
    int tmp = 0;

    while( 1 ) {
        pthread_mutex_lock( &mutex );
        tmp = count++;
        pthread_mutex_unlock( &mutex );
        printf( "Count is %d\n", tmp );

        /* snooze for 1 second */
        sleep( 1 );
    }

    return 0;
}

void* function2( void* arg )
{
    int tmp = 0;

    while( 1 ) {
        pthread_mutex_lock( &mutex );
        tmp = count--;
        pthread_mutex_unlock( &mutex );
        printf( "** Count is %d\n", tmp );

        /* snooze for 2 seconds */
        sleep( 2 );
    }

    return 0;
}

int main( void )
{
    pthread_create( NULL, NULL, &function1, NULL );
    pthread_create( NULL, NULL, &function2, NULL );

    /* Let the threads run for 60 seconds. */
    sleep( 60 );

    return 0;
}

Classification:

POSIX 1003.1 THR

Safety:
Cancellation point	No
Interrupt handler	No
Signal handler	Yes
Thread	Yes