How do I use mutexes in threading?

How do I use mutexes in threading?

Mutexes, or mutual exclusions, are used to prevent multiple threads from accessing shared resources simultaneously. Would you like to see a code example?

Yes, please provide a code example.

Here's a simple example in Python using the threading module:

import threading

# Create a mutex
mutex = threading.Lock()

# Shared resource
shared_resource = 0

# Function to increment the shared resource
def increment():
    global shared_resource
    mutex.acquire()  # Acquire the mutex
    try:
        for _ in range(100000):
            shared_resource += 1
    finally:
        mutex.release()  # Release the mutex

# Create threads
threads = [threading.Thread(target=increment) for _ in range(2)]

# Start threads
for thread in threads:
    thread.start()

# Wait for threads to finish
for thread in threads:
    thread.join()

print(shared_resource)  # Should print 200000

What happens if I forget to release the mutex?

If you forget to release the mutex, it can lead to a deadlock situation where other threads are unable to acquire the mutex and get stuck waiting indefinitely.