What is a safe way to lock a thread in a single-threaded application?

I was looking at the different possible threading methods that I could use in my single-threaded application. What I have written so far is a class that will lock the thread when I instantiate the object, then unlock the thread when the object becomes out of scope. Here is what the class looks like:

ProcessCritSec.h

#ifndef AFX_PROCESS_CRIT_SEC_H_
#define AFX_PROCESS_CRIT_SEC_H_

class CProcessCritSec 
{
    public:
        CProcessCritSec(CCriticalSection* pcCriticalSection);
        virtual ~CProcessCritSec();

    private:
        CCriticalSection*   m_pcProcessCritSect;
};

#endif // !defined(AFX_PROCESS_CRIT_SEC_H_)

ProcessCritSec.cpp

#include "StdAfx.h"
#include "ProcessCritSec.h"

CProcessCritSec::CProcessCritSec(CCriticalSection* pcCriticalSection)
{
    m_pcProcessCritSect = pcCriticalSection;

    if (m_pcProcessCritSect != NULL)
    {
        m_pcProcessCritSect->Lock();
    }
}

CProcessCritSec::~CProcessCritSec()
{
    if (m_pcProcessCritSect != NULL)
    {
        m_pcProcessCritSect->Unlock();
    }
}

When I want to lock a thread I call this in a function:

CProcessCritSec cThreadSafety(&m_cCriticalSection);

Is this a safe way to locking a thread? Or is there a safer way to making my application single-threaded? Also I have a side question: When I instantiate this object in a try/catch block like so:

try
{
    CProcessCritSec cThreadSafety(&m_cCritialSection);

    Foo();
}
catch(...)
{
    //Log Exception
}

Will the thread become unlocked if an exception occurred within Foo() and the catch block catches the exception?

Is this a safe way to locking a thread?

Yes, it's the recommended way: see for example std::lock_guard

However:

• I don't see why the destructor is virtual

• You should probably disable/prevent the copy constructor and assignment operator

• The constructor should probably take a reference (which can't be null) not a pointer

• Try to ensure (though you're probably doing this already) that the destructor will not throw an exception

Will the thread become unlocked if an exception occurred within Foo() and the catch block catches the exception?

It will unlock when CProcessCritSec is destroys, which happens as soon as it goes out of scope, which happens whenever you leave the try statement (before you enter any catch statement).

StackExchange Code Review Q#42161, answer score: 5