How to use mutexes and semaphores in C#
Briefly

Semaphores are crucial for managing access to shared resources in concurrent programming, particularly in .NET. They differ from mutexes, allowing multiple threads to access resources simultaneously based on defined limits. A practical example is provided with a FileLogger class in C#, showcasing the use of a Mutex for locking in scenarios where multiple threads might attempt to write to a log file. This example illustrates critical section management, demonstrating resource synchronization in multi-threaded applications.
A semaphore is used to limit the number of threads that have access to a shared resource at the same time, enabling non-exclusive locking and concurrency control.
In .NET, we utilize the System.Threading.Semaphore class to manage semaphores, which allow multiple threads to access a shared resource based on the defined limits.
A Mutex object in .NET can be created with the Mutex class, using WaitOne to lock a resource and ReleaseMutex to unlock it, ensuring thread safety.
The FileLogger class demonstrates how to synchronize access to a shared resource, in this case, a text file, using a Mutex to prevent simultaneous writes.
Read at InfoWorld
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