Data race and mutex

Data race conditions are very common in multithreaded applications, but we must avoid such a scenario so that deadlocks do not happen. A mutex helps us to overcome deadlocks. A mutex is a program object that allows multiple program threads to share the same resource, such as file access, but not simultaneously. When a program is started, a mutex is created with a unique name.

Getting ready

For this recipe, you will need a Windows machine and an installed version of Visual Studio.

How to do it…

In this recipe, we will see how easy it is to understand data races and mutexes. Add a source file called Source.cpp and add the following code to it:

#include <thread>
#include <string>
#include <mutex>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

std::mutex MU;

void Locomotion(string msg, int id)
{
  std::lock_guard<std::mutex> guard(MU); //RAII
  //MU.lock();
  cout << msg << id << endl;
  //MU.unlock();
}
void InterfaceFunction()
{
...