Using the Mutex construct

This recipe will describe how to synchronize two separate programs using a Mutex construct. Mutex is a primitive synchronization that grants exclusive access of the shared resource to only one thread.

Getting ready

To step through this recipe, you will need Visual Studio 2012. There are no other prerequisites. The source code for this recipe could be found at 7644_Code\Chapter2\Recipe2.

How to do it...

To understand the synchronization of two separate programs using the Mutex construct, perform the following steps:

1. Start Visual Studio 2012. Create a new C# Console Application project.

2. In the Program.cs file, add the following using directives:

   using System;
   using System.Threading;

3. Inside the Main method, add the following code snippet:

   const string MutexName = "CSharpThreadingCookbook";
   
   using (var m = new Mutex(false, MutexName))
   {
     if (!m.WaitOne(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5), false))
     {
       Console.WriteLine("Second instance is running!");
     }
     else
     {
       Console.WriteLine...