Critical section initialization when creating thread-safe singleton (C++)

Question

I'm trying to do the same thing as suggested in this solution:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/164496/how-can-i-create-a-thread-safe-singleton-pattern-in-windows/164640#164640

But, where should the critical section be initialized and uninitialized?

Answer 1

Wrap the critical section into a class (use a ready one or craft your own) and declare a global variable of that class - then the critical section will be initialized during the program startup and deinitialized on program exit. Since startup and exit are done on one thread it will work reliably.

Answer 2

Use pthread_once() and you can initialize the critical section before you use it for the first time. Windows has InitOnceExecuteOnce function.