The <mutex> header contains multiple types of mutexes and locks. The mutex type is the most commonly used type, and provides the basic lock/unlock functionality without any further complications.
At its core, the goal of a mutex is to exclude the possibility of simultaneous access so as to prevent data corruption, and to prevent crashes due to the use of non-thread-safe routines.
An example of where one would need to use a mutex is the following code:
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
void worker(int i) {
std::cout << "Outputting this from thread number: " << i << "\n";
}
int main() {
std::thread t1(worker, 1);
std::thread t2(worker, 2);
t1.join();
t2.join();
return 0;
} If one were to try and run this preceding code as-is, one would notice that the text output from both threads would be mashed together instead of being output one after the other. The reason for this is that the standard...