fast_mutex Class Reference

Fast mutex class. More...

#include <fast_mutex.h>

List of all members.

Public Member Functions
	fast_mutex ()
	Constructor.
	~fast_mutex ()
	Destructor.
void	lock ()
	Lock the mutex.
bool	try_lock ()
	Try to lock the mutex.
void	unlock ()
	Unlock the mutex.

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Detailed Description

Fast mutex class.

This is a mutual exclusion object for synchronizing access to shared memory areas for several threads. It is similar to the tthread::mutex class, but instead of using system level functions, it is implemented as an atomic spin lock with very low CPU overhead.

The fast_mutex class is NOT compatible with the condition_variable class (however, it IS compatible with the lock_guard class). It should also be noted that the fast_mutex class typically does not provide as accurate thread scheduling as a the standard mutex class does.

Because of the limitations of the class, it should only be used in situations where the mutex needs to be locked/unlocked very frequently.

Note:

The "fast" version of this class relies on inline assembler language, which is currently only supported for 32/64-bit Intel x86/AMD64 and PowerPC architectures on a limited number of compilers (GNU g++ and MS Visual C++). For other architectures/compilers, system functions are used instead.

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Member Function Documentation

void lock

(

)

[inline]

Lock the mutex.

The method will block the calling thread until a lock on the mutex can be obtained. The mutex remains locked until unlock() is called.

See also:

lock_guard

bool try_lock

(

)

[inline]

Try to lock the mutex.

The method will try to lock the mutex. If it fails, the function will return immediately (non-blocking).

Returns:

true if the lock was acquired, or false if the lock could not be acquired.

void unlock

(

)

[inline]

Unlock the mutex.

If any threads are waiting for the lock on this mutex, one of them will be unblocked.

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The documentation for this class was generated from the following file:

• fast_mutex.h