--- title: Coordinate your threads with a barrier (example in C) description: Barriers are a thread synchronization primitive useful for coordinating multiple threads in round-based programs like games or simulations. Unlike locks or... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/coordinate-your-threads-with-a-barrier-example-in-c--zzojjmezq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Coordinate your threads with a barrier (example in C) | daily.dev og:description: Barriers are a thread synchronization primitive useful for coordinating multiple threads in round-based programs like games or simulations. Unlike locks or... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/coordinate-your-threads-with-a-barrier-example-in-c--zzojjmezq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Zzojjmezq.png og:image:alt: Coordinate your threads with a barrier (example in C) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Coordinate your threads with a barrier (example in C) **[Jacob Sorber](https://daily.dev/sources/jacobsorber)** · 12 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Barriers are a thread synchronization primitive useful for coordinating multiple threads in round-based programs like games or simulations. Unlike locks or condition variables, a barrier makes all threads wait until every participating thread has reached the same point, then releases them all simultaneously. Using POSIX pthreads in C, the example demonstrates pthread_barrier_t initialization with pthread_barrier_init (specifying the total thread count), and pthread_barrier_wait calls placed at round boundaries so threads stay in sync despite varying execution times. The approach avoids the overhead of repeatedly creating and joining threads each round. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [December 26, 2025](https://daily.dev/posts/december-26-2025-cknayiyfy) · DevBlogs · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Making race condition tests deterministic with Concurrent::CyclicBarrier and seam](https://daily.dev/posts/making-race-condition-tests-deterministic-with-concurrent-cyclicbarrier-and-seam-mrundkise) · arkency · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Staggering Complexity And Subtlety Of Concurrency](https://daily.dev/posts/the-staggering-complexity-and-subtlety-of-concurrency-e4mpqhp2q) · Hackaday · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#c](https://daily.dev/tags/c) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/coordinate-your-threads-with-a-barrier-example-in-c--zzojjmezq) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Coordinate your threads with a barrier (example in C)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/coordinate-your-threads-with-a-barrier-example-in-c--zzojjmezq","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/coordinate-your-threads-with-a-barrier-example-in-c--zzojjmezq"},"datePublished":"2026-07-07T14:29:50.354Z","dateModified":"2026-07-07T14:30:18.041Z","description":"Barriers are a thread synchronization primitive useful for coordinating multiple threads in round-based programs like games or simulations. 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