Threads::SpinLock Class Reference

Is an alternative to Mutex. It is a lock which causes a thread trying to acquire it to simply wait in a loop ("spin") while repeatedly checking if the lock is available. Because they avoid overhead from operating system process re-scheduling or context switching, spinlocks are efficient if threads are only likely to be blocked for a short period. More...

Public Member Functions
	SpinLock (bool recursive=false)
	SpinLock (const SpinLock &)
	~SpinLock ()
SpinLock &	operator= (const SpinLock &b)
void	lock ()
void	unLock ()
bool	tryLock ()
int	count () const

Protected Attributes
AtomicPointer< const void >	lockingthread_
int	count_
bool	recursive_

Detailed Description

Is an alternative to Mutex. It is a lock which causes a thread trying to acquire it to simply wait in a loop ("spin") while repeatedly checking if the lock is available. Because they avoid overhead from operating system process re-scheduling or context switching, spinlocks are efficient if threads are only likely to be blocked for a short period.

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

Threads::SpinLock::SpinLock

(

bool

recursive = false

)

Threads::SpinLock::SpinLock

(

const SpinLock &

)

Threads::SpinLock::~SpinLock

(

)

Member Function Documentation

int Threads::SpinLock::count ( ) const

inline

Only for debugging.

void Threads::SpinLock::lock

(

)

SpinLock& Threads::SpinLock::operator= ( const SpinLock &  b )

inline

bool Threads::SpinLock::tryLock

(

)

void Threads::SpinLock::unLock

(

)

Member Data Documentation

int Threads::SpinLock::count_

protected

AtomicPointer<const void> Threads::SpinLock::lockingthread_

protected

0 if unlocked, otherwise set to locking thread

bool Threads::SpinLock::recursive_

protected