C++ boost::thread and automatically locking containers

Question

Is there a way to automatically lock an STL container on access, without having to lock and release around it?

Answer 1

The currrent C++ standard does not say anything about thread safety for STL containers. Officially it is possible for an STL implementation to be thread safe, but it's very unusual. If your STL implementation is not thread safe, then you will need to "lock and release around it" or find some other way to coordinate access.

You may be interested in Intel's Threading Building Blocks which includes some thread safe containers similar to STL containers.

Answer 2

After much Googling, it seems the way to do it is to create a wrapper around your container. e.g.:

template<typename T>
class thread_queue
{
private:
    std::queue<T> the_queue;
    mutable boost::mutex the_mutex;
    boost::condition_variable the_condition_variable;
public:
    void push(T const& data)
    {
        boost::mutex::scoped_lock lock(the_mutex);
        the_queue.push(data);
        lock.unlock();
        the_condition_variable.notify_one();
    }
    etc ...
}