ReleaseMutex
The ReleaseMutex
function releases ownership of the specified mutex object.
BOOL ReleaseMutex(
|
HANDLE hMutex |
// handle of mutex
object |
|
); |
|
Parameters
hMutex
Identifies
the mutex object. The CreateMutex or OpenMutex function returns
this handle.
Return Values
If the
function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.
If the
function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information,
call GetLastError.
Remarks
The ReleaseMutex
function fails if the calling thread does not own the mutex object.
A thread gets
ownership of a mutex by specifying a handle of the mutex in one of the wait
functions. The thread
that creates a mutex object can also get immediate ownership without using one
of the wait functions. When the owning thread no longer needs to own the mutex
object, it calls the ReleaseMutex function.
While a
thread has ownership of a mutex, it can specify the same mutex in additional
wait-function calls without blocking its execution. This prevents a thread from
deadlocking itself while waiting for a mutex that it already owns. However, to
release its ownership, the thread must call ReleaseMutex once for each
time that the mutex satisfied a wait.
See Also