INFO: Critical Sections Versus Mutexes |
Q105678
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API), included with:
- Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
- Microsoft Windows 95
- the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000
SUMMARY
Critical sections and mutexes provide synchronization that is very similar, except that critical sections can be used only by the threads of a single process. There are two areas to consider when choosing which method to use within a single process:
Speed. The Synchronization overview says the following about critical sections:
... critical section objects provide a slightly faster, more efficient mechanism for mutual-exclusion synchronization.
Critical sections use a processor-specific test and set instruction to determine mutual exclusion.
Deadlock. The Synchronization overview says the following about mutexes:
If a thread terminates without releasing its ownership of a mutex object, the mutex is considered to be abandoned. A waiting thread can acquire ownership of an abandoned mutex, but the wait function's return value indicates that the mutex is abandoned.
WaitForSingleObject() will return WAIT_ABANDONED for a mutex that has been abandoned. However, the resource that the mutex is protecting is left in an unknown state.
There is no way to tell whether a critical section has been abandoned.
Additional query words: 3.50
Keywords : kbKernBase kbOSWin2000 kbThread kbThreadSync kbDSupport kbGrpDSKernBase
Issue type : kbinfo
Technology : kbAudDeveloper kbWin32sSearch kbWin32API
Last Reviewed: December 16, 2000 |
