Chapter 53: POSIX Semaphores

This chapter describes POSIX semaphores, which allow processes and threads to synchronize access to shared resources. In Chapter 47, we described System V semaphores, and we'll assume that the reader is familiar with the general semaphore concepts and rationale for using semaphores that were presented at the start of that chapter. During the course of this chapter, we'll make comparisons between POSIX semaphores and System V semaphores to clarify the ways in which these two semaphore APIs are the same and the ways in which they differ.

53 POSIX Semaphores
53.1 Overview
53.2 Named Semaphores
        53.2.1 Opening a Named Semaphore
        53.2.2 Closing a Semaphore
        53.2.3 Removing a Named Semaphore
53.3 Semaphore Operations
        53.3.1 Waiting on a Semaphore
        53.3.2 Posting a Semaphore
        53.3.3 Retrieving the Current Value of a Semaphore
53.4 Unnamed Semaphores
        53.4.1 Initializing an Unnamed Semaphore
        53.4.2 Destroying an Unnamed Semaphore
53.5 Comparisons with Other Synchronization Techniques
53.6 Semaphore Limits
53.7 Summary
53.8 Exercises