[Boost-users] Confused about shared_mutex usage.

Subject: [Boost-users] Confused about shared_mutex usage.
From: Jason Cipriani (jason.cipriani_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-07-02 06:40:25

Hi all,

I'm looking at the shared_mutex documentation here:

  http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_35_0/doc/html/thread/synchronization.html#thread.synchronization.mutex_types.shared_mutex

But the documentation seems to be a little bit sparse and I'm having
trouble figuring out how to use shared_mutex as a read/write lock.
Just to make sure, lock_shared/unlock_shared is for the "readers", and
lock/unlock is for the "writers"? If not, how do I lock/unlock it for
reading, and how do I lock/unlock it for writing (exclusive lock)?

Also I'm having trouble understanding what a "lock" is as opposed to a
mutex. What is boost::shared_lock?

Thanks!
Jason