Hi, I'm trying to create simple locks based on a string name. I looked at the interprocess module which has a named mutex, but it seems not well suited/efficient for use in a single process, though I know it's supposed to work. Instead, I'm just creating a map<string,weak_ptr<mutex>> in a NamedMutexManager class. It's used as a singleton and uses brute force locking to implement a named lock pattern. Main method is shared_ptr<mutex> GetMutex(string name) { BigLock (only one thread at a time can get a lock so we synchronize access to map) check map if we have entry, make sure weak_ptr hasn't been reclaimed If so, make a new shared_ptr, save weak_ptr by name, return shared_ptr If not, return shared_ptr copy from weak_ptr.lock() If we habe no entry, make a new shared_ptr, save weak_ptr by name, return shared_ptr } I'm just getting back to C++ after years, so I'm 99% sure there's probably a much better way. Is there a better way to do an intra-process, reliable mutex by std::string name so I can lock things by name? How are other people doing this, do you find interprocess:named_mutex suitable for use in-process? I had problems with it. Thanks! Jason