Ns mutex

Man page: http://www.aolserver.com/docs/devel/tcl/api/thread.html#ns_mutex

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NAME

ns_mutex - Operate on mutexes

SYNOPSIS

ns_mutex option ?arg arg ...?

DESCRIPTION

This command provides a mechanism to manipulate mutexes. The legal options (which may be abbreviated) are:

• ns_mutex create ?name?

Initializes a new mutual exclusion (mutex) lock and returns a handle to it. If name is provided the mutex name will be set to this value.

• ns_mutex destroy object

Destroys the mutex and frees any resources it was using.

NOTE: The mutex must be unlocked, or else the behavior is undefined and will likely crash the server. Before using this, you should probably look at Implementing a Mutex Pool instead.

• ns_mutex lock object

Attempt to acquire the mutex lock and block if it is already locked.

• ns_mutex unlock object

Release a previously acquired mutex lock.

EXAMPLES

It seems like the only difference between ns_mutex lock and ns_critsec enter is that a thread can block itself by calling ns_mutex lock twice on one lock without calling ns_mutex unlock on that lock. Is there some reason to use ns_mutex instead of ns_critsec?

   nsv_set . special_file_mutex [ns_mutex create]
   
   proc write_special_file {data} {
       set mutex [nsv_get . special_file_mutex]
       ns_mutex lock $mutex
       set handle [open special_file w]
       puts $handle $data
       ns_mutex unlock $mutex
   }
   
   proc read_special_file {data} {
       set mutex [nsv_get . special_file_mutex]
       ns_mutex lock $mutex
       set handle [open special_file r]
       set result [read $handle]
       ns_mutex unlock $mutex
       return $result
   }
   
   proc change_special_file {data} {
       set mutex [nsv_get . special_file_mutex]
       # PROC WAITS FOREVER HERE
       ns_mutex lock $mutex
       set result [read_special_file]
       write_special_file $data
       ns_mutex unlock $mutex
       return $result
   }

SEE ALSO

ns_cond, ns_critsec, ns_event, ns_thread

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Category Documentation - Category Core Tcl API