- * It is needed e.g. if changing @ref playing or if modifying buffer pointers.
- * It is not needed to add a new track, to read values only modified in the
- * same thread, etc.
+ *
+ * It is held 'all' the time by the main thread, the exceptions being when
+ * called activate/deactivate callbacks and when calling (potentially) slow
+ * system calls (in particular poll(), where in fact the main thread will spend
+ * most of its time blocked).
+ *
+ * The callback holds it when it's running.