(*
 * RMutex - Reentrant mutexes
 * Copyright (C) 1996 Xavier Leroy
 *               1996 Damien Doligez
 *               2008 David Teller
 * 
 * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
 * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
 * version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version,
 * with the special exception on linking described in file LICENSE.
 *
 * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 * Lesser General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
 * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
 *)


(** Locks for mutual exclusion.

    Mutexes (mutual-exclusion locks) are used to implement critical sections
    and protect shared mutable data structures against concurrent accesses.
    The typical use is (if [m] is the mutex associated with the data structure
    [D]):
    {[
     RMutex.synchronize ~lock:m (fun () ->
        (* Critical section that operates over D *);
     ) ()
    ]}

    This module implements reentrant mutexes, i.e. a version of mutexes which
    may be locked again by their owner thread without blocking this thread.
    Reentrant mutexes are typically slower than regular mutexes but also safer.

    @documents RMutex

    @author Xavier Leroy (Base module)
    @author Damien Doligez (Base module)
    @author David Teller
*)

type t
(** The type of mutexes. *)

val create : unit -> t
(** Return a new mutex. *)

val lock : t -> unit
  (** Lock the given mutex. Only one thread can have the mutex locked
      at any time. A thread that attempts to lock a mutex already locked
      will suspend until the other mutex is unlocked.

      {b Note} attempting to lock a mutex you already have locked from
      the same thread will not suspend your thread.
*)

val try_lock : t -> bool
(** Same as {!RMutex.lock}, but does not suspend the calling thread if
    the mutex is already locked: just return [false] immediately
    in that case. If the mutex is unlocked, lock it and
    return [true]. *)

val unlock : t -> unit
(** Unlock the given mutex. Other threads suspended trying to lock
    the mutex will restart. If the mutex wasn't locked, nothing happens.*)

val synchronize : ?lock:t -> ('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b
(** Protect a function.

    [synchronize f] returns a new function [f'] with the same behavior
    as [f] but such that concurrenty calls to [f'] are queued if
    necessary to avoid races.

    [synchronize ~lock:l f] behaves as [synchronize f] but uses a
    user-specified lock [l], which may be useful to share a lock
    between several function.

    In either case, the lock is acquired when entering the function
    and released when the function call ends, whether this is due
    to normal termination or to some exception being raised.
*)


val make : unit -> BatConcurrent.lock
(**
   Create a new abstract lock based on Reentrant Mutexes.
*)
