I am either having some problems with the documentation, or I've stumbled into a bug in Boost.Interprocess's named_condition. I'm compiling on VC++ 2010, 32 or 64 bit, with the following test code: #include "stdafx.h" #include <boost/interprocess/sync/named_condition.hpp> #include <boost/interprocess/sync/named_mutex.hpp> int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[]) { boost::interprocess::named_mutex mutex( boost::interprocess::open_or_create, "test" ); boost::interprocess::named_condition condition( boost::interprocess::open_or_create, "test" ); condition.wait( mutex ); return 0; } I get the following compiler errors: 1>------ Build started: Project: TestInterprocess, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------ 1>Build started 09-Jul-12 11:45:22 AM. 1>InitializeBuildStatus: 1> Touching "Debug\TestInterprocess.unsuccessfulbuild". 1>ClCompile: 1> All outputs are up-to-date. 1> TestInterprocess.cpp 1>c:\code\sdks\boost\include\boost-1_50\boost\interprocess\sync\shm\named_condition.hpp(204): error C2248: 'boost::interprocess::interprocess_mutex::mutex' : cannot access private member declared in class 'boost::interprocess::interprocess_mutex' 1> c:\code\sdks\boost\include\boost-1_50\boost\interprocess\sync\interprocess_mutex.hpp(117) : see declaration of 'boost::interprocess::interprocess_mutex::mutex' 1> c:\code\sdks\boost\include\boost-1_50\boost\interprocess\sync\interprocess_mutex.hpp(67) : see declaration of 'boost::interprocess::interprocess_mutex' 1> c:\code\sdks\boost\include\boost-1_50\boost\interprocess\sync\shm\named_condition.hpp(204) : while compiling class template member function 'boost::interprocess::ipcdetail::shm_named_condition::lock_wrapper<Lock>::mutex_type *boost::interprocess::ipcdetail::shm_named_condition::lock_wrapper<Lock>::mutex(void) const' 1> with 1> [ 1> Lock=boost::interprocess::named_mutex 1> ] 1> c:\code\sdks\boost\include\boost-1_50\boost\interprocess\sync\shm\named_condition.hpp(342) : see reference to class template instantiation 'boost::interprocess::ipcdetail::shm_named_condition::lock_wrapper<Lock>' being compiled 1> with 1> [ 1> Lock=boost::interprocess::named_mutex 1> ] 1> c:\code\sdks\boost\include\boost-1_50\boost\interprocess\sync\named_condition.hpp(156) : see reference to function template instantiation 'void boost::interprocess::ipcdetail::shm_named_condition::wait<L>(L &)' being compiled 1> with 1> [ 1> L=boost::interprocess::named_mutex 1> ] 1> c:\code\projects\testinterprocess\testinterprocess\testinterprocess.cpp(10) : see reference to function template instantiation 'void boost::interprocess::named_condition::wait<boost::interprocess::named_mutex>(L &)' being compiled 1> with 1> [ 1> L=boost::interprocess::named_mutex 1> ] 1>c:\code\sdks\boost\include\boost-1_50\boost\interprocess\sync\shm\named_condition.hpp(204): error C2064: term does not evaluate to a function taking 0 arguments 1> 1>Build FAILED. 1> 1>Time Elapsed 00:00:05.97 ========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ========== I am lead to believe that I should used a named_mutex by the documentation here: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_50_0/doc/html/boost/interprocess/named_condi... which states in the description that "This condition variable is designed to work with named_mutex and can't be placed in shared memory