Please read this link by the author of boost.thread: http://www.devx.com/SpecialReports/Article/38883/1954?pf=true, He also has a personal blog worth reading: http://www.justsoftwaresolutions.co.uk/ concerning your specific questions: 1. boost::mutex::scoped_lock is just a typedef of unique_lock<mutex> inside mutex. With this kind of typedef, you'll be able to use the same type scoped_lock for other kind of mutex( For example Timed_mutex ) by changing the mutex type only. There IS the definition on this page: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_37_0/doc/html/thread/synchronization.htm l#thread.synchronization.mutex_types 2. " std::lock_guard is deliberately basic and can only be used as shown. On the other hand, std::unique_lock allows for deferred locking, trying to lock, trying to lock with a timeout, and unlocking before the object is destroyed. "(copied from the first link above) HTH.

From: "Robert Ramey" Subject: [Boost-users] question about threading library

I want to use the boost threading library in an application.

Looking through the documentation, I have a questions.

a) in the examples I find "boost::mutex::scoped_lock" but I don't find this in the documentation. It looks like this is called "lock_guard". What should I be doing here.

b) Its not clear to me how unique_lock(Lockable l) is different than using lock_gard(..) or scoped_lock.

Robert Ramey

**************************************