Question

I was looking at the Mutex(Boolean, String) page and i’m completely confused. If i pass true how do i check if the mutex is owned by me or now? Then i saw Mutex(Boolean, String, out Boolean) and can use the 3rd param to check.

I’m extremely confused. I tested, new mutex doesnt return null or throw an exception if another process is holding the named mutex. But with the other i can check via paran. So whats the point of that constructor and Mutex(Boolean)?

Answer 1

If you want to create a named mutex, but don’t want to own it, it seems like the ideal overload to use:

If name is not null and initiallyOwned is true, the calling thread owns the mutex only if the named system mutex was created as a result of this call. Since there is no mechanism for determining whether the named system mutex was created, it is better to specify false for initiallyOwned when calling this constructor overload.

(Emphasis added)

If you use the Mutex(Boolean) constructor creates a local mutex – one not visible outside of your program.

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It appears that the designers of this class favored consistent parameter ordering in the constructor overloads – some might have designed this particular constructor without the initiallyOwned parameter at all – just with the name. But that’s more of a stylistic choice.