Editing Thread safety (section)

{{Short description|Concept in multi-threaded computer programming}}

In [[multi-threaded]] [[computer programming]], a function is '''thread-safe''' when it can be invoked or accessed concurrently by multiple threads without causing unexpected behavior, [[race condition]]s, or data corruption.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kerrisk |first=Michael |title=The Linux Programing Interface |publisher=[[No Starch Press]] |year=2010 |page=699 |postscript=, "Chapter 31: THREADS: THREAD SAFETY AND  PER-THREAD STORAGE"}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> As in the multi-threaded context where a program executes several threads simultaneously in a shared [[address space]] and each of those threads has access to every other thread's [[computer storage|memory]], thread-safe functions need to ensure that all those threads behave properly and fulfill their design specifications without unintended interaction.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |publisher=[[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] |first= |date=November 2020 |title=Multithreaded Programming Guide: Chapter 7 Safe and Unsafe Interfaces |url=https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37838_01/html/E61057/compat-14994.html#scrolltoc |access-date=2024-04-30 |website=Docs Oracle |postscript=; "Thread Safety"}}</ref>

There are various strategies for making thread-safe data structures.<ref name=":0" />