[Boost-users] [Boost.thread] Desire to check mutex locked state for debug builds

From: Kai Brüning (kai_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-12-19 11:14:26

Hi,

I am new to this list, although not completely new to using Boost.

When working with mutexes and locks, it is common 
to have functions which are part of critical 
sections but do not lock themselves. A typical 
example for this is the thread safe interface 
design pattern, which moves all locking to the 
publicly available interface functions of a class 
and all implementation to internal functions 
which expect to be called with a lock in effect.

I would feel much more confident if I could check 
"expect to be called with a lock in effect" in 
debug builds. That is, if I could test whether a 
mutex is locked for a specific thread (in my 
case, "current thread" would suffice). Especially 
if some functions need locking and others don't 
and the goal is to minimize locking for 
performance's sake, pure convention and 
documentation without runtime checks seems to me 
dangerously error prone.

Is there any way to do this test which I overlooked?

Is my desire sensible? Or are there other/better 
ways to make sure necessary locking is done?

Best regards,
Kai Brüning

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