public member function
<mutex>

std::mutex::lock

void lock();
Lock mutex
The calling thread locks the mutex, blocking if necessary:

  • If the mutex isn't currently locked by any thread, the calling thread locks it (from this point, and until its member unlock is called, the thread owns the mutex).
  • If the mutex is currently locked by another thread, execution of the calling thread is blocked until unlocked by the other thread (other non-locked threads continue their execution).
  • If the mutex is currently locked by the same thread calling this function, it produces a deadlock (with undefined behavior). See recursive_mutex for a mutex type that allows multiple locks from the same thread.

All lock and unlock operations on the mutex follow a single total order, with all visible effects synchronized between the lock operations and previous unlock operations on the same object.

The non-member function lock allows to lock more than one mutex object simultaneously, avoiding the potential deadlocks that can happen when multiple threads lock/unlock individual mutex objects in different orders.

Note that the order in which different concurrent locks are scheduled to return is unspecified, and not necessarily related to the order in which they are locked (depending on the system and library implementation).

Parameters

none

Return value

none

Example

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// mutex::lock/unlock
#include <iostream>       // std::cout
#include <thread>         // std::thread
#include <mutex>          // std::mutex

std::mutex mtx;           // mutex for critical section

void print_thread_id (int id) {
  // critical section (exclusive access to std::cout signaled by locking mtx):
  mtx.lock();
  std::cout << "thread #" << id << '\n';
  mtx.unlock();
}

int main ()
{
  std::thread threads[10];
  // spawn 10 threads:
  for (int i=0; i<10; ++i)
    threads[i] = std::thread(print_thread_id,i+1);

  for (auto& th : threads) th.join();

  return 0;
}


Possible output (order of lines may vary, but they are never intermingled):
thread #1
thread #2
thread #3
thread #4
thread #5
thread #6
thread #7
thread #8
thread #9
thread #10

Data races

The mutex object is modified as an atomic operation (causing no data races).

Exception safety

Basic guarantee: if an exception is thrown by this member function, the mutex object is left in a valid state. Further, a lock is never acquired by the thread that made the throwing call.
If the mutex is already locked by the current thread, calling this function causes a deadlock (undefined behavior): on certain library implementations, this causes the function to fail.

If the call fails, a system_error exception is thrown:
exception typeerror conditiondescription
system_errorerrc::resource_deadlock_would_occur A deadlock was detected (implementations may detect certain cases of deadlock).
system_errorerrc::operation_not_permitted The thread does not have privileges to perform the operation.
system_errorerrc::device_or_resource_busy The native handle type manipulated is already locked.
Depending on the library implementation, this member function may also throw exceptions to report other situations.

See also

mutex::try_lock
Lock mutex if not locked (public member function )
mutex::unlock
Unlock mutex (public member function )

C++