NAME pthread_lock_global_np - Locks the global mutex SYNOPSIS #include <pthread.h> void pthread_lock_global_np(); DESCRIPTION The pthread_lock_global_np() routine locks the global mutex. If the glo- bal mutex is currently held by another thread when a thread calls this routine, the thread waits for the global mutex to become available. The thread that has locked the global mutex becomes its current owner and remains the owner until the same thread has unlocked it. This rou- tine returns with the global mutex in the locked state and with the current thread as the global mutex's current owner. Use the global mutex when calling a library package that is not designed to run in a multithreaded environment. (Unless the documentation for a library function specifically states that it is compatible with mul- tithreading, assume that it is not compatible; in other words, assume it is nonreentrant.) The global mutex is one lock. Any code that calls any function that is not known to be reentrant uses the same lock. This prevents dependencies among threads calling library functions and those functions calling other functions, and so on. The global mutex is a recursive mutex. A thread that has locked the glo- bal mutex can relock it without deadlocking. (The locking thread must call pthread_unlock_global_np() as many times as it called this routine to allow another thread to lock the global mutex.) This routine is not portable. RETURN VALUES No value is returned. RELATED INFORMATION FUNCTIONS: pthread_mutexattr_setkind_np pthread_mutex_lock pthread_mutex_unlock pthread_unlock_global_np