scoped_lock inside lock_guard, is it redundant?

Question

I'm new in multi-thread programming. I'm now doing a serial port communication project, and search related codes for reference. I found a code that someone used scoped_lock inside lock_guard as below:

void B(){
     boost::mutex::scoped_lock b_lock(b_mutex);
     /* do something */
}

void A(){
     const std::lock_guard<std::mutex> a_lock(a_mutex);
     /* do something  */
     B();
}

According to this post, I think these two are just to lock mutex. And B() is called by A(), so maybe scoped_lock inside B() is not needed, and can be removed. Is it right?

You might want `scope_lock` to lock both `b_mutex` and `a_mutex` at once in some context. — Louis Go, Mar 08 '22 at 09:03

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 08 '22 at 09:00

They lock different mutexes. Whether this makes sense depends on what is do something. For example it could be:

void B(){
     boost::mutex::scoped_lock b_lock(b_mutex);
     /* do something that needs b_mutex locked */
}

void A(){
     const std::lock_guard<std::mutex> a_lock(a_mutex);
     /* do something that needs a_mutex locked  */
     B();
}

It seems like A could be changed to

void A(){
     { 
         const std::lock_guard<std::mutex> a_lock(a_mutex);
         /* do something that needs a_mutex locked  */
     }
     B();
}

But whether this is still correct depends on details that were left out from the posted code.

Locking two different mutexes is not redundant, because other threads may lock only one of them.

Thanks for your answer!!! It's clear. – RyanChen.YLC Mar 09 '22 at 05:26 — RyanChen.YLC, Mar 09 '22 at 05:26

scoped_lock inside lock_guard, is it redundant?

1 Answers1