Why is lock_guard a template?

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I just learned about std::lock_guard and I was wondering why it is a template.
Until now I have only seen std::lock_guard<std::mutex> with std::mutex inside the angle brackets.

1 Answers

Using std::lock_guard<std::mutex> is indeed quite common.
But you can use std::lock_guard with other mutex types:

  1. Various standard mutex types, e.g.: std::recursive_mutex.
  2. Your own mutex type. You can use any type, as long as it is a BasicLockable, i.e. it supports the required methods: lock(), unlock().
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