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Modern C++ Concurrency: Get the most out of any machine

std::atomic<bool>

Explore the use of std::atomic<bool> in C++ to achieve thread-safe boolean operations. Understand its advantages over volatile variables, synchronization patterns like push versus pull, and how atomic compare_exchange functions enable non-blocking algorithms.

We'll cover the following...

Let’s start with the full specializations for bool: std::atomic<bool>

std::atomic<bool>

std::atomic<bool> has a lot more to offer than std::atomic_flag. It can explicitly be set to true or false.

atomic is not volatile

What does the keyword volatile in C# and Java have in common with the keyword volatile in C++? Nothing! It’s so easy in C++. That is the difference between volatile and std::atomic.

  • volatile: is for special objects, on which optimized read or write operations are not allowed

  • std::atomic: defines atomic variables, which are meant for a thread-safe reading and writing

It’s so easy, but the confusion starts exactly here. The keyword volatile in Java and C# has the meaning of std::atomic in C++, i.e. volatile has no multithreading semantic in C++.

volatile is typically used in embedded programming to denote objects which can change independently of the regular program flow. One example is an object which represents an external ...