[fpc-devel] volatile variables

[Michael Schnell]

On 06/28/2011 01:20 PM, Henry Vermaak wrote:
>
>
> "Operations on volatile variables are not atomic,
That is of course known.
> nor do they establish a proper happens-before relationship for threading. 
I see. So maybe part of my question is invalid.

But as pthread_mutex (and the appropriate Windows stuff) contains a 
memory barrier, same does enforce memory ordering even in an SMP 
environment, regarding cache operations and with CPUs that do on-the fly 
reordering.

So, regarding C, I understand that (even in a single CPU environment):

If all accesses to a variable are protected by a MUTEX, multiple threads 
will use the variable as expected, only if it is defined as volatile. 
Otherwise is might be cached in registers and one thread's writing to (i 
C code but not compiled that way) it might be unnoticed by the other thread.

Now how is the volatile state defined in Pascal and how can a heap 
variable be defined to be handled as volatile ?

-Michael