.NET offers several synchronization primitives, including Mutex, Semaphore, Monitor, and ReaderWriterLockSlim.
Mutex is a cross-process synchronization primitive that ensures exclusive access to shared resources by only allowing one thread at a time. It’s useful for coordinating multiple processes accessing the same file or resource.
Semaphore controls access to a pool of resources with a specified maximum count. It’s suitable for scenarios where multiple threads can access a limited number of instances concurrently, like connection pooling.
Monitor provides an efficient mechanism for ensuring mutual exclusion within a single process. It uses lock statements to protect critical sections, making it ideal for simple synchronization tasks in multithreaded applications.
ReaderWriterLockSlim allows concurrent read access while restricting write access to a single thread. This optimizes performance when there are more reads than writes, such as caching systems.
