(This is the documentation for SDL3, which is under heavy development and the API is changing! SDL2 is the current stable version!)

Draft

THIS PAGE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS ... Please make edits to this page to improve it!

SDL_TryLockMutex

Try to lock a mutex without blocking.

Header File

Defined in SDL_mutex.h, but apps should use #include <SDL3/SDL.h>

Syntax

int SDL_TryLockMutex(SDL_Mutex *mutex) SDL_TRY_ACQUIRE(0, mutex);

Function Parameters

mutex

the mutex to try to lock

Return Value

Returns 0 or SDL_MUTEX_TIMEDOUT

Remarks

This works just like SDL_LockMutex(), but if the mutex is not available, this function returns SDL_MUTEX_TIMEDOUT immediately.

This technique is useful if you need exclusive access to a resource but don't want to wait for it, and will return to it to try again later.

This function does not fail; if mutex is NULL, it will return 0 immediately having locked nothing. If the mutex is valid, this function will always either lock the mutex and return 0, or return SDL_MUTEX_TIMEOUT and lock nothing.

Version

This function is available since SDL 3.0.0.

Code Examples

int status;
SDL_Mutex *mutex;

mutex = SDL_CreateMutex();
if (!mutex) {
  SDL_LogError(SDL_LOG_CATEGORY_APPLICATION, "Couldn't create mutex\n");
  return 1;
}

status = SDL_TryLockMutex(mutex);

if (status == 0) {
  SDL_Log("Locked mutex\n");
  SDL_UnlockMutex(mutex);
} else if (status == SDL_MUTEX_TIMEDOUT) {
  /* Mutex not available for locking right now */
} else {
  SDL_LogError(SDL_LOG_CATEGORY_APPLICATION, "Couldn't lock mutex\n");
}

SDL_DestroyMutex(mutex);