IOSimpleLockAlloc
Allocates and initializes a spin lock.
Declaration
IOSimpleLock * IOSimpleLockAlloc(void);Return Value
Pointer to the allocated lock, or zero on failure.
Discussion
Allocates and initializes a spin lock in general purpose memory. Spin locks provide non-blocking mutual exclusion for synchronization between thread context and interrupt context, or for multiprocessor synchronization, and are supplied by libkern/locks.h. This function may block and so should not be called from interrupt level or while a spin lock is held. IOSimpleLocks use the global IOKit lock group, IOLockGroup. To simplify kext debugging and lock-heat analysis, consider using lck_* locks with a per-driver lock group, as defined in kern/locks.h.