RtReleaseMutex

RtReleaseMutex relinquishes ownership of a mutex.

Syntax

BOOL RtReleaseMutex(
    HANDLE hMutex
);

Parameters

hMutex

The handle which identifies the mutex object as returned by a preceding call to RtCreateMutex or RtOpenMutex.

Return Value

If the function succeeds, it returns TRUE. If the function fails, it returns FALSE.

To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

RtReleaseMutex 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 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 RtReleaseMutex.

While a thread owns 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 RtReleaseMutex once for each time the mutex satisfied a wait.

See Also:

• RtCreateMutex
• RtOpenMutex
• RtWaitForSingleObject