What is the difference between lock and mutex in C#?

Both lock and mutex are synchronization primitives in C# that help prevent race conditions and ensure thread safety. However, they differ in their implementation and usage:

Lock:

• Implementation: A lock is a syntactic sugar provided by C# that simplifies the use of a Monitor class. It's a convenient way to acquire and release a lock on a specific object.
• Usage: You use lock with a specific object as the argument. This object acts as a lock, ensuring that only one thread can execute code within the lock block at a time.
• Example:

public class Counter
{
    private int count = 0;

    public void Increment()
    {
        lock (this) 
        {
            count++;
        }
    }
}

Mutex:

• Implementation: A mutex is a more powerful synchronization primitive that can be used across multiple processes. It's implemented using the Mutex class in C#.
• Usage: You create a mutex with a unique name. Threads can acquire and release the mutex using its methods. If another thread already holds the mutex, a thread attempting to acquire it will block until the mutex is released.
• Example:

using System.Threading;

public class MyMutex
{
    private Mutex mutex = new Mutex(false, "MyMutexName"); 

    public void DoSomething()
    {
        // Acquire the mutex
        if (mutex.WaitOne(Timeout.Infinite))
        {
            try
            {
                // Critical section
                // ...
            }
            finally
            {
                // Release the mutex
                mutex.ReleaseMutex();
            }
        }
    }
}

Key Differences:

• Scope: Locks are scoped to a specific object, while mutexes can be used across multiple processes.
• Implementation: Locks are built on the Monitor class, while mutexes are implemented using the Mutex class.
• Usage: Locks are simpler to use, while mutexes provide more flexibility and control.

In summary, lock is a convenient way to synchronize access to an object within a single process, while mutex is a more powerful and versatile mechanism for synchronization across multiple processes.