What is a mutex?

Threads And Concurrency Questions



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What is a mutex?

A mutex, short for mutual exclusion, is a synchronization mechanism used in concurrent programming to ensure that only one thread can access a shared resource or critical section at a time. It provides mutual exclusion by allowing a thread to acquire and release the mutex, preventing other threads from accessing the resource until it is released. This helps to prevent race conditions and maintain data integrity in multi-threaded environments.