13.1 POSIX Synchronization Functions

This chapter discusses mutex locks, conditions variables and read-write locks. Table 13.1 summarizes the synchronization functions that are available in the POSIX:THR Extension. Each synchronization mechanism provides an initialization function and a function for destroying the object. The mutex locks and condition variables allow static initialization. All three types of synchronization have associated attribute objects, but we work only with synchronization objects that have the default attributes.

Table 13.1. Synchronization functions for POSIX:THR threads.

description	POSIX function
mutex locks	pthread_mutex_destroy
	pthread_mutex_init
	pthread_mutex_lock
	pthread_mutex_trylock
	pthread_mutex_unlock
condition variables	pthread_cond_broadcast
	pthread_cond_destroy
	pthread_cond_init
	pthread_cond_signal
	pthread_cond_timedwait
	pthread_cond_wait
read-write locks	pthread_rwlock_destroy
	pthread_rwlock_init
	pthread_rwlock_rdlock
	pthread_rwlock_timedrdlock
	pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock
	pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock
	pthread_rwlock_trywrlock
	pthread_rwlock_wrlock