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Types of Locks: std::lock_guard

Learn how std::lock_guard simplifies mutex management in C++ by automatically locking and unlocking within a scope. Understand different lock types, including std::scoped_lock introduced in C++17, and how they help prevent deadlocks and manage access to shared data safely. This lesson helps you grasp essential threading concepts for concurrency control.

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Locks take care of their resources following the RAII idiom. A lock automatically binds its mutex in the constructor and releases it in the destructor; this considerably reduces the risk of a deadlock because the runtime takes care of the mutex.

Locks are available in three different flavors: std::lock_guard for the simple use-cases; std::unique-lock for the advanced use-cases; std::shared_lock is available (with C++14) and can be used to implement reader-writer locks.

First, the simple use-case:

C++
std::mutex m;
m.lock();
sharedVariable = getVar();
m.unlock();

The mutex m ensures that access to the critical section ...