Does the .NET framework provide an ability to implement access to a shared resource in a manner such that some Writers trying to access that resource will have priority over others?
My problem has the following constraints:
1. Only 1 concurrent write request to the resource can be granted
2. There are many Writers waiting for access to this resource, but some Writers have precedence over others (starvation of low-priority Writers is okay).
3. Thread affinity is a NON-requirement. One thread can set the lock, but another may reset it.
4. All Writer threads are from the same process.
In short, I need a primitive that exposes its wait-queue and allows modify access to it. If there isn’t any such thing, any tips on how I can proceed on building one for myself, using the already available classes, such as Semaphore?
Use priority queue to keep list of pending requests. See here: Priority queue in .Net.
Use stanadrd Monitor functionality to lock and signal what and when to do, as proposed by kenny.