What are some examples of mutexes in Python?

What are some examples of mutexes in Python?

Mutexes, or mutual exclusions, are used in Python to prevent multiple threads from accessing shared resources. One common example is using the threading.Lock class.

Can you show me a code example using threading.Lock?

Sure! Here's a simple example:

import threading

# Create a lock object
lock = threading.Lock()

# Shared resource
shared_resource = 0

# Function to increment the shared resource
def increment():
    global shared_resource
    with lock:
        for _ in range(100000):
            shared_resource += 1

# Create threads
thread1 = threading.Thread(target=increment)
thread2 = threading.Thread(target=increment)

# Start threads
thread1.start()
thread2.start()

# Wait for threads to finish
thread1.join()
thread2.join()

print(shared_resource)  # Should print 200000

What happens if I don't use a lock?

If you don't use a lock, multiple threads may access and modify the shared resource simultaneously, leading to race conditions and unpredictable results.

Are there other types of mutexes in Python?

Yes, besides threading.Lock, Python also provides threading.RLock (reentrant lock) and threading.Semaphore for more complex synchronization.