c - Interprocess mutex with pthreads

Question

I want to use a mutex which will be used to synchronize access to some variables residing in the memory shared b/w two different processes. How can I achieve that. Code sample to perform that will be very appreciated.

Answer 1

Use a POSIX semaphore initialized to 1 instead. (See below) Use sem_init for unnamed semaphores or sem_open for named ones.

sem_t sem;

/* initialize using sem_init or sem_open */

sem_wait(&sem);
/* critical region */
sem_post(&sem);

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Many years after initially posting this answer, it has to be updated.

Mutexes should actually be used instead of semaphores. R and kuga's comments (copied verbatim below) explain why. In particular I find kuga's mention that mutexes can only be posted by their locking thread most compelling.

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R

sem_init requires a nonzero pshared argument to be shared, just like a mutex would require the pshared attribute. There's no reason to prefer semaphores over mutexes for this, and in fact mutexes would be better because you could use a robust mutex which allows you to handle the (very real!) case where one process dies while holding the lock.

kuga

Additionally to R..`s post, a mutex can only be posted by the thread that locks it. This is often required and a semaphore does not provide this feature. So this is not the correct answer, Jeff′s answer should be flagged as the correct answer.