


The counter, b, tracks the number of blocking readers.
#Readwrite org how to#
Raynal demonstrates how to implement an R/W lock using two mutexes and a single integer counter. Several implementation strategies for readers–writer locks exist, reducing them to synchronization primitives that are assumed to pre-exist. Unspecified priority can in some situations be preferable if it allows for a more efficient implementation. Unspecified priority RW locks does not provide any guarantees with regards read vs.This variation is sometimes also known as "write-biased" readers–writer lock. Also the lock is less performant because each operation, taking or releasing the lock for either read or write, is more complex, internally requiring taking and releasing two mutexes instead of one. The downside is that write-preferring locks allows for less concurrency in the presence of writer threads, compared to read-preferring RW locks.

#Readwrite org upgrade#
The deadlock can be avoided by allowing only one thread to acquire the lock in "read-mode with intent to upgrade to write" while there are no threads in write mode and possibly non-zero threads in read-mode. Upgradable RW locks can be tricky to use safely, since whenever two threads holding reader locks both attempt to upgrade to writer locks, a deadlock is created that can only be broken by one of the threads releasing its reader lock. Some RW locks allow the lock to be atomically upgraded from being locked in read-mode to write-mode, as well as being downgraded from write-mode to read-mode.
