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+***********
+Portability
+***********
+
+.. _portability-thread-safety:
+
+Thread safety
+-------------
+
+Jansson as a library is thread safe and has no mutable global state.
+The only exceptions are the hash function seed and memory allocation
+functions, see below.
+
+There's no locking performed inside Jansson's code. **Read-only**
+access to JSON values shared by multiple threads is safe, but
+**mutating** a JSON value that's shared by multiple threads is not. A
+multithreaded program must perform its own locking if JSON values
+shared by multiple threads are mutated.
+
+However, **reference count manipulation** (:func:`json_incref()`,
+:func:`json_decref()`) is usually thread-safe, and can be performed on
+JSON values that are shared among threads. The thread-safety of
+reference counting can be checked with the
+``JANSSON_THREAD_SAFE_REFCOUNT`` preprocessor constant. Thread-safe
+reference count manipulation is achieved using compiler built-in
+atomic functions, which are available in most modern compilers.
+
+If compiler support is not available (``JANSSON_THREAD_SAFE_REFCOUNT``
+is not defined), it may be very difficult to ensure thread safety of
+reference counting. It's possible to have a reference to a value
+that's also stored inside an array or object in another thread.
+Modifying the container (adding or removing values) may trigger
+concurrent access to such values, as containers manage the reference
+count of their contained values.
+
+
+Hash function seed
+==================
+
+To prevent an attacker from intentionally causing large JSON objects
+with specially crafted keys to perform very slow, the hash function
+used by Jansson is randomized using a seed value. The seed is
+automatically generated on the first explicit or implicit call to
+:func:`json_object()`, if :func:`json_object_seed()` has not been
+called beforehand.
+
+The seed is generated by using operating system's entropy sources if
+they are available (``/dev/urandom``, ``CryptGenRandom()``). The
+initialization is done in as thread safe manner as possible, by using
+architecture specific lockless operations if provided by the platform
+or the compiler.
+
+If you're using threads, it's recommended to autoseed the hashtable
+explicitly before spawning any threads by calling
+``json_object_seed(0)`` , especially if you're unsure whether the
+initialization is thread safe on your platform.
+
+
+Memory allocation functions
+===========================
+
+Memory allocation functions should be set at most once, and only on
+program startup. See :ref:`apiref-custom-memory-allocation`.
+
+
+Locale
+------
+
+Jansson works fine under any locale.
+
+However, if the host program is multithreaded and uses ``setlocale()``
+to switch the locale in one thread while Jansson is currently encoding
+or decoding JSON data in another thread, the result may be wrong or
+the program may even crash.
+
+Jansson uses locale specific functions for certain string conversions
+in the encoder and decoder, and then converts the locale specific
+values to/from the JSON representation. This fails if the locale
+changes between the string conversion and the locale-to-JSON
+conversion. This can only happen in multithreaded programs that use
+``setlocale()``, because ``setlocale()`` switches the locale for all
+running threads, not only the thread that calls ``setlocale()``.
+
+If your program uses ``setlocale()`` as described above, consider
+using the thread-safe ``uselocale()`` instead.