The reentrant version of the putchar function is locked against multiple threads calling it simultaneously. This incurs overhead to ensure integrity of the output stream. The unlocked version of this call, putchar_unlocked can be used to avoid the overhead. The putchar_unlocked function is functionally identical to the putchar function, except that it is not required to be implemented in a thread-safe manner. The putchar_unlocked function can be safely used only within a scope that is protected by the flockfile and funlockfile functions used as a pair. The caller must ensure that the stream is locked before putchar_ unlocked is used. Compiling with the __UNIX_PUTC macro defined enables an optimization that uses a faster, inlined version of this function. See also flockfile, ftrylockfile, and funlockfile.