I wish to use multiple threads to build a graph, and to topologically sort it. It would appear that the easiest way is to construct a graph adapter like so: template <class T> class Graph { boost::adjacency_list<boost::vecS, boost::vecS, boost::directedS, T> internalGraph; boost::shared_mutex mutex; // read-write lock enabler // Add other suitable adapter methods here }; I'm wondering whether this is the better idea over using the PBGL, since it seems that the PBGL is more complicated. My specific scenario is that T is a functor type whose operation is expensive, and may depend on calling a similar functor (determining the dependent functors needed is cheap); thus, I'm trying to obtain all of the functors and then ordering them so that all dependent functors are always evaluated before the functor itself is evaluated. Thus, each thread would do something like this: Graph<T>& dependencyGraph = ...; // shared graph std::deque<T> tasks; // initially populated list while (!tasks.empty()) { T task = tasks.front(); tasks.pop_front(); std::list<T> dependents = task.getDependents(); for (std::list<T>::const_iterator it = dependents.begin(); it != dependents.end(); ++it) { dependencyGraph.addEdge(task, *it); // Creates a new vertex if either vertex does not exist tasks.push_back(*it); } } No vertices or edges are ever removed from the graph, unless the whole graph is being destroyed. Would bundling a mutex and a graph be a good idea for this purpose?