Differentiate between mutex and semaphores

Question

Accepted Answer

Mutex and semaphores are synchronization mechanisms used in multi-threaded environments.

Mutex is used to provide mutual exclusion, allowing only one thread to access a shared resource at a time.
Semaphore is used to control access to a shared resource by multiple threads, allowing a specified number of threads to access it simultaneously.
Mutex is binary, meaning it has only two states: locked or unlocked.
Semaphore can have a count greater than one, indicating the number of threads that can access the resource concurrently.
Mutex is typically used to protect critical sections of code or shared data structures.
Semaphore is often used to limit the number of concurrent accesses to a resource, such as limiting the number of connections to a database.
Example: In a multi-threaded web server, a mutex can be used to ensure only one thread modifies the request queue at a time.
Example: In a producer-consumer scenario, a semaphore can be used to limit the number of items in the buffer.

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