What is sync.Locker and how is it used in real-world Go concurrency code?

sync.Locker is a small two-method interface from the standard library. It is satisfied by both *sync.Mutex and *sync.RWMutex, as well as any custom lock type. It is used to write generic lock-based utilities.

// sync.Locker interface:
type Locker interface {
    Lock()
    Unlock()
}

// Both *sync.Mutex and *sync.RWMutex satisfy Locker
var mu sync.Mutex
var rwmu sync.RWMutex
var l1 sync.Locker = &mu    // *Mutex satisfies Locker
var l2 sync.Locker = &rwmu  // *RWMutex satisfies Locker (Lock/Unlock = write lock)

// Generic utility using sync.Locker
func withLock(l sync.Locker, fn func()) {
    l.Lock()
    defer l.Unlock()
    fn()
}

counter := 0
withLock(&mu, func() { counter++ })

// sync.Cond uses Locker — works with any lock
cond := sync.NewCond(&mu)   // &mu satisfies Locker
// Or with an RWMutex read lock:
cond2 := sync.NewCond(rwmu.RLocker()) // RLocker() returns a Locker for the read lock

// Custom lock satisfying Locker
type SpinLock struct{ locked atomic.Bool }
func (s *SpinLock) Lock()   { for !s.locked.CompareAndSwap(false, true) { runtime.Gosched() } }
func (s *SpinLock) Unlock() { s.locked.Store(false) }

var spin SpinLock
withLock(&spin, func() { counter++ }) // SpinLock works with withLock!

sync.Locker is an excellent example of Go's philosophy: a small, well-named interface that abstracts just one behaviour (mutual exclusion). The withLock utility pattern is idiomatic — it ensures Unlock is always called via defer, avoiding forgotten unlocks.

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