A mutex is a MUTual EXclusion device, and is useful for protecting shared data structures from concurrent
modifications, and implementing critical sections and monitors.
A mutex has two possible states: unlocked (not owned by any thread), and locked (owned by one thread). A
mutex can never be owned by two different threads simultaneously. A thread attempting to lock a mutex
that is already locked by another thread is suspended until the owning thread unlocks the mutex first.
pthread_mutex_init initializes the mutex object pointed to by mutex according to the mutex attributes
specified in mutexattr. If mutexattr is NULL, default attributes are used instead.
The LinuxThreads implementation supports only one mutex attributes, the mutexkind, which is either
``fast'', ``recursive'', or ``error checking''. The kind of a mutex determines whether it can be locked
again by a thread that already owns it. The default kind is ``fast''. See pthread_mutexattr_init(3) for
more information on mutex attributes.
Variables of type pthread_mutex_t can also be initialized statically, using the constants
PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER (for fast mutexes), PTHREAD_RECURSIVE_MUTEX_INITIALIZER_NP (for recursive
mutexes), and PTHREAD_ERRORCHECK_MUTEX_INITIALIZER_NP (for error checking mutexes).
pthread_mutex_lock locks the given mutex. If the mutex is currently unlocked, it becomes locked and
owned by the calling thread, and pthread_mutex_lock returns immediately. If the mutex is already locked
by another thread, pthread_mutex_lock suspends the calling thread until the mutex is unlocked.
If the mutex is already locked by the calling thread, the behavior of pthread_mutex_lock depends on the
kind of the mutex. If the mutex is of the ``fast'' kind, the calling thread is suspended until the mutex
is unlocked, thus effectively causing the calling thread to deadlock. If the mutex is of the ``error
checking'' kind, pthread_mutex_lock returns immediately with the error code EDEADLK. If the mutex is of
the ``recursive'' kind, pthread_mutex_lock succeeds and returns immediately, recording the number of
times the calling thread has locked the mutex. An equal number of pthread_mutex_unlock operations must
be performed before the mutex returns to the unlocked state.
pthread_mutex_trylock behaves identically to pthread_mutex_lock, except that it does not block the
calling thread if the mutex is already locked by another thread (or by the calling thread in the case of
a ``fast'' mutex). Instead, pthread_mutex_trylock returns immediately with the error code EBUSY.
pthread_mutex_unlock unlocks the given mutex. The mutex is assumed to be locked and owned by the calling
thread on entrance to pthread_mutex_unlock. If the mutex is of the ``fast'' kind, pthread_mutex_unlock
always returns it to the unlocked state. If it is of the ``recursive'' kind, it decrements the locking
count of the mutex (number of pthread_mutex_lock operations performed on it by the calling thread), and
only when this count reaches zero is the mutex actually unlocked.
On ``error checking'' and ``recursive'' mutexes, pthread_mutex_unlock actually checks at run-time that
the mutex is locked on entrance, and that it was locked by the same thread that is now calling
pthread_mutex_unlock. If these conditions are not met, an error code is returned and the mutex remains
unchanged. ``Fast'' mutexes perform no such checks, thus allowing a locked mutex to be unlocked by a
thread other than its owner. This is non-portable behavior and must not be relied upon.
pthread_mutex_destroy destroys a mutex object, freeing the resources it might hold. The mutex must be
unlocked on entrance. In the LinuxThreads implementation, no resources are associated with mutex
objects, thus pthread_mutex_destroy actually does nothing except checking that the mutex is unlocked.