Question

I use Task Parallel Library and I need to synchronize access to a method but since Tasks don’t necessarily create threads for asynchronous operations, I can’t rely on using locks.

void Foo()
{
    lock(SyncRoot)
    {
        // Do stuff...
    }
}

What can I use instead of lock if I want to prevent simultaneous calls from multiple tasks to Foo? I need my tasks to call Foo, one by one.

---

• ContinueWith is not an option.
• I use .NET 4.

Answer 1

From MSDN:

Behind the scenes, tasks are queued to the ThreadPool, which has been enhanced with algorithms (like hill-climbing) that determine and adjust to the number of threads that maximizes throughput.

So you can lock or any other threading synchronisation mechanism like ManualResetEvent or Memory barriers.