Threads, Channels & Mutex in Rust

From the Rust cheat sheet · Concurrency · verified Jul 2026

Threads, Channels & Mutex

Spawn threads, pass messages, and share state safely.

rust

use std::thread;
use std::sync::mpsc;

// Spawn a thread
let handle = thread::spawn(|| {
    println!("Hello from a thread!");
});
handle.join().unwrap();

// Channel — message passing
let (tx, rx) = mpsc::channel();
thread::spawn(move || { tx.send("hello").unwrap(); });
let msg = rx.recv().unwrap();

💡 Arc<Mutex<T>> is the standard pattern for shared mutable state across threads

⚡ Channels (mpsc) are for message passing; Mutex is for shared state — pick one paradigm

📌 Mutex::lock() returns a MutexGuard — it auto-unlocks when the guard is dropped

🟢 Send + Sync traits are auto-implemented — the compiler prevents unsafe sharing at compile time

threadschannelsmutexarcconcurrency

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