Question

I have a file that will be read from multiple threads, do I need to put each seek and read into a critical section?

stream.Seek(seekStart, SeekOrigin.Begin);
stream.Read();
stream.Seek(seekNext, SeekOrigin.Current);
stream.Read();

or

lock(fileLock)
{
    stream.Seek(seekStart, SeekOrigin.Begin);
    stream.Read();
    stream.Seek(seekNext, SeekOrigin.Current);
    stream.Read();
}

Obviously what I’m trying to avoid is the following situation:

.
.
 Thread A: Seek
 <- Preempted ->
 Thread B: Seek
 Thread B: Read
 <- Preempted ->
 Thread A: Read  (Will this be reading from the wrong location?)
.
.

Answer 1

Because your streams will be separate objects in separate threads, you should be OK without making it critical. Each stream should hold its own seek location, and so should not interfere with the others.

This assumes that you are declaring all of your variables within the class object, and not static.