The reentrant version of the putc macro is locked against multiple threads calling it simultaneously. This incurs overhead to ensure integrity of the stream. The unlocked version of this call, putc_unlocked can be used to avoid the overhead. The putc_ unlocked macro is functionally identical to the putc macro, except that it is not required to be implemented in a thread- safe manner. The putc_unlocked macro can be safely used only within a scope that is protected by the flockfile and funlockfile functions used as a pair. The caller must ensure that the stream is locked before putc_unlocked is used. Since putc_unlocked is a macro, a file pointer argument with side effects might be evaluated incorrectly. In such a case, use the fputc_unlocked function instead. Compiling with the __UNIX_PUTC macro defined enables an optimization that uses a faster, inlined version of this function. See also flockfile, ftrylockfile, and funlockfile.