What are mutexes and how do they work in operating systems?

What are mutexes and how do they work in operating systems?

Mutexes, or mutual exclusions, are synchronization primitives used to prevent concurrent access to shared resources in operating systems.

Why are mutexes important in multi-threading?

They are crucial because they help avoid race conditions, ensuring that only one thread can access a resource at a time.

Can you give an example of how a mutex is used in code?

Sure! In C, you might use pthread_mutex_lock() to lock a mutex before accessing a shared variable and pthread_mutex_unlock() to release it.

What happens if a mutex is not used properly?

Improper use can lead to deadlocks, where two or more threads are waiting indefinitely for each other to release resources.