Question

Is it possible to initialise CRITICAL_SECTION statically, as in pthread_mutex_t mutex = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER?

In other words, is it possible in C to initialize a global CRITICAL_SECTION inside a library without having to mess with DllMain etc.?

Answer 1

The answer above from Raymond Chen solves the problem: "You can use InitOnceExecuteOnce to initialize the critical section on first use. That’s what PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER does under the covers."

note that this will work on Vista and above only — @rkosegi

You can do it for older versions of Windows by writing your own InitOnceExecuteOnce function using InterlockedCompareExchange. — @RaymondChen