boost::mutex supports try_lock_for in Visual Studio, but not in Xcode

Question

I'm using Xcode 5.0 and boost 1.54. The following code compiles fine using Visual Studio 2008 Sp1, but does not compile in Xcode:

    template <class Rep, class Period>
bool try_lock_for(const boost::chrono::duration<Rep, Period> &_rel_time)
{
    return m_mutex.try_lock_for(_rel_time);
}

I get the error "No member named 'try_lock_until' in 'boost::mutex'" in Xcode.

I am including boost/mutex.hpp and boost/thread.hpp. The Xcode project is setup to use Apple LLVM 5.0 and the GNU99 C++ dialect. I get a similar compile error when I use 'try_lock_until(...)'.

It seems that boost::mutex is defined differently on the two platforms. On Windows the code looks as follows:

namespace detail
{
    typedef ::boost::detail::basic_timed_mutex underlying_mutex;
}

class mutex:
    public ::boost::detail::underlying_mutex
{
    ...
}

So on Windows boost::mutex inherits from timed mutex, but on xcode its just a class that uses pthreads (without support for try_for, etc.).

What is the correct way then to use boost mutex (with try_for) for both Windows and MacOS? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

ok, solved it (easy fix). I replaced boost::mutex with boost::timed_mutex and now both VS2008 and Xcode are compiling without errors on the code.