Including std::lock_guard in extra scope

Question

Does is make sense to do something like putting a std::lock_guard in an extra scope so that the locking period is as short as possible?

Pseudo code:

// all used variables beside the lock_guard are created and initialized somewhere else ...// do something  { // open new scope     std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(mut);     shared_var = newValue;   } // close the scope  ... // do some other stuff (that might take longer) 

Are there more advantages besides having a short lock duration?

What might be negative side effects?

Answer 1

Yes, it certainly makes sense to limit the scope of lock guards to be as short as possible, but not shorter.

The longer you hold a lock, the more likely it is that a thread will block waiting for that lock, which impacts performance as is thus usually considered a bad thing.

However, you must make sure that the program is still correct and that the lock is held at all times when it must be, i.e. when the shared resource protected by the lock is accessed or modified.

There may be one more point to consider (I do not have enough practical experience here to speak with certainty). Locking/releasing a mutex can potentially be an operation with nontrivial performance costs itself. Therefore, it may turn out that keeping a lock for a slightly longer period instead of unlocking & re-locking it several times in the course of one operation can actually improve overall performace. This is something which profiling could show you.