This routine initializes a mutex object with the Threads Library default mutex attributes. A mutex is a synchronization object that allows multiple threads to serialize their access to shared data. The mutex object is initialized and set to the unlocked state. Your program can use the PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER macro to statically initialize a mutex object without calling this routine. Static initialization can be used only for a condition variable with storage class "extern" or "static" - "automatic" (stack local) objects must be initialized by calling tis_mutex_ init(). Use this macro as follows: pthread_mutex_t mutex = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;