32 Atomic operations library [atomics]

32.5 Lock-free property [atomics.lockfree]

#define ATOMIC_BOOL_LOCK_FREE unspecified
#define ATOMIC_CHAR_LOCK_FREE unspecified
#define ATOMIC_CHAR16_T_LOCK_FREE unspecified
#define ATOMIC_CHAR32_T_LOCK_FREE unspecified
#define ATOMIC_WCHAR_T_LOCK_FREE unspecified
#define ATOMIC_SHORT_LOCK_FREE unspecified
#define ATOMIC_INT_LOCK_FREE unspecified
#define ATOMIC_LONG_LOCK_FREE unspecified
#define ATOMIC_LLONG_LOCK_FREE unspecified
#define ATOMIC_POINTER_LOCK_FREE unspecified

The ATOMIC_­..._­LOCK_­FREE macros indicate the lock-free property of the corresponding atomic types, with the signed and unsigned variants grouped together. The properties also apply to the corresponding (partial) specializations of the atomic template. A value of 0 indicates that the types are never lock-free. A value of 1 indicates that the types are sometimes lock-free. A value of 2 indicates that the types are always lock-free.

The function atomic_­is_­lock_­free indicates whether the object is lock-free. In any given program execution, the result of the lock-free query shall be consistent for all pointers of the same type.

Atomic operations that are not lock-free are considered to potentially block ([intro.progress]).

[Note: Operations that are lock-free should also be address-free. That is, atomic operations on the same memory location via two different addresses will communicate atomically. The implementation should not depend on any per-process state. This restriction enables communication by memory that is mapped into a process more than once and by memory that is shared between two processes. end note]