How do I initialize thread primitives from a multithreaded context with win32?

Question

I want to create a static Lock

void foo(){
    static CRITICAL_SECTION *lock = NULL; //this is the problem, I cannot create any primitive to do this with win32 threads
    static long isInitialized = 0;
    if (InterlockedExchange(&isInitialized, 1) == 0){ //this will ensure that lock is initialized only once
        lock = (CRITICAL_SECTION*)malloc(sizeof(CRITICAL_SECTION));
        InitializeCriticalSection(lock);
    }
    EnterCriticalSection(lock); //this might be called before initialization is done...YIKES!
    ...
    LeaveCriticalSection(lock); 
}

How do I initialize the lock from a multithreaded context?

A crappy solution could look like:

void foo(){
    static CRITICAL_SECTION *lock = NULL; //this is the problem, I cannot create any primitive to do this with win32 threads
    static long isInitialized = 0;
    static volatile long isInitializeDone = 0;
    if (InterlockedExchange(&isInitialized, 1) == 0){ //this will ensure that lock is initialized only once
        lock = (CRITICAL_SECTION*)malloc(sizeof(CRITICAL_SECTION));
        InitializeCriticalSection(lock);
        isInitializeDone = 1;
    } else {
        while (isInitializeDone == 0){

        }
    }
    EnterCriticalSection(lock); //this might be called before initialization is done...YIKES!
    ...
    LeaveCriticalSection(lock); 
}

but is there a better solution?

Answer 1

If this is C++, you can call a function to initialize that critical section:

static CRITICAL_SECTION *lock = get_critical_section();

like

CRITICAL_SECTION* get_critical_section()
{
    CRITICAL_SECTION *lock = NULL;
    InitializeCriticalSection(&lock);
    return lock;
}

C++ specifies that exactly one thread will initialize that thing, and that all other threads will wait for it:

[stmt.dcl]

If control enters the declaration concurrently while the variable is being initialized, the concurrent execution shall wait for completion of the initialization.

EDIT: I don't know since when the text within the standard is like this, but I'm pretty sure this is what all implementations do.