A way to use Mutex-like locking in Go, but with timeouts.

timeout_mutex.go

package play1

import (
	"errors"
	"time"
)

type MyStruct struct {
	m map[string]uint64
}

type SynchronizedMyStruct struct {
	lock chan MyStruct
}

func NewSynchronizedMyStruct(ms MyStruct) SynchronizedMyStruct {
	ch := make(chan MyStruct, 1)
	ch <- ms
	return SynchronizedMyStruct{lock: ch}
}

func (sms *SynchronizedMyStruct) Acquire() MyStruct {
	return <-sms.lock
}

func (sms *SynchronizedMyStruct) AcquireWithTimeout(d time.Duration) (MyStruct, error) {
	select {
	case ms := <-sms.lock:
		return ms, nil
	case <-time.After(d):
		return MyStruct{}, errors.New("timed out")
	}
}

func (sms *SynchronizedMyStruct) Release(ms MyStruct) {
	sms.lock <- ms
}