mutex_lock/1

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  - Multithreaded applications
    - Thread synchronisation
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Availability:built-in

mutex_lock(+MutexId)

Lock the mutex. Prolog mutexes are recursive mutexes: they can be locked multiple times by the same thread. Only after unlocking it as many times as it is locked does the mutex become available for locking by other threads. If another thread has locked the mutex the calling thread is suspended until the mutex is unlocked.

If MutexId is an atom, and there is no current mutex with that name, the mutex is created automatically using mutex_create/1. This implies named mutexes need not be declared explicitly.

Please note that locking and unlocking mutexes should be paired carefully. Especially make sure to unlock mutexes even if the protected code fails or raises an exception. For most common cases, use with_mutex/2, which provides a safer way for handling Prolog-level mutexes. The predicate setup_call_cleanup/3 is another way to guarantee that the mutex is unlocked while retaining non-determinism.