This class encapsulates much of the logic for dealing with synchronization handles, which allow much more fine-grained synchronization control than simple thread locking. Once you have references to one or more WaitHandle subclasses, use the static WaitOne( ) or WaitAny( ) methods to obtain a lock on any single handle or all of the handles, respectively. The WaitOne( ) instance method acquires the lock for a specific WaitHandle. If a thread blocks and cannot obtain the necessary locks, it enters the ThreadState.WaitSleepJoin state until the locks can be obtained.

public abstract class WaitHandle : MarshalByRefObject, IDisposable {
// Public Constructors
   public WaitHandle( );
// Public Static Fields
   public const int WaitTimeout;         
// =258
// Protected Static Fields
   protected static readonly IntPtr InvalidHandle;    
// =-1
// Public Instance Properties
   public virtual IntPtr Handle{set; get; }
// Public Static Methods
   public static bool WaitAll(WaitHandle[ ] waitHandles);
   public static bool WaitAll(WaitHandle[ ] waitHandles, int millisecondsTimeout, bool exitContext);
   public static bool WaitAll(WaitHandle[ ] waitHandles, TimeSpan timeout, bool exitContext);
   public static int WaitAny(WaitHandle[ ] waitHandles);
   public static int WaitAny(WaitHandle[ ] waitHandles, int millisecondsTimeout, bool exitContext);
   public static int WaitAny(WaitHandle[ ] waitHandles, TimeSpan timeout, bool exitContext);
// Public Instance Methods
   public virtual void Close( );
   public virtual bool WaitOne( );
   public virtual bool WaitOne(int millisecondsTimeout, bool exitContext);
   public virtual bool WaitOne(TimeSpan timeout, bool exitContext);
// Protected Instance Methods
   protected virtual void Dispose(bool explicitDisposing);
   protected override void Finalize( );   
// overrides object
}

Hierarchy

System.Object System.MarshalByRefObject WaitHandle(System.IDisposable)

Subclasses

AutoResetEvent, ManualResetEvent, Mutex

Returned By

System.IAsyncResult.AsyncWaitHandle, System.IO.Stream.CreateWaitHandle( )

Passed To

RegisteredWaitHandle.Unregister( ), ThreadPool.{RegisterWaitForSingleObject( ), UnsafeRegisterWaitForSingleObject( )}, Timer.Dispose( )