Examples of possible additional mutex attributes that have been discussed are spin_only, limited_spin, no_spin, recursive, and metered. (To explain what the latter attributes might mean: recursive mutexes would allow for multiple re-locking by the current owner; metered mutexes would transparently keep records of queue length, wait time, and so on.) Since there is not yet wide agreement on the usefulness of these resulting from shared implementation and usage experience, they are not yet specified in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001. Mutex attributes objects, however, make it possible to test out these concepts for possible standardization at a later time.
