std::atomic_thread_fence

extern "C" void atomic_thread_fence( std::memory_order order );

Establishes memory synchronization ordering of non-atomic and relaxed atomic accesses, as instructed by order, without an associated atomic operation. For example, all non-atomic and relaxed atomic stores that happen before a std::memory_order_release fence in thread A will be synchronized with non-atomic and relaxed atomic loads from the same locations made in thread B after an std::memory_order_acquire fence if there exist atomic operations X and Y, both operating on some atomic object M, such that the fence in thread A is sequenced before X, X modifies M, Y is sequenced before the fence in thread B, and Y reads the value written by X or a value written by any side effect in the hypothetical release sequence X would head if it were a release operation..

Parameters

Return value

(none).

Exceptions

Notes

atomic_thread_fence imposes different synchronization constraints than an atomic store operation with the same std::memory_order. While an atomic store-release operation prevents all preceding writes from moving past the store-release, an atomic_thread_fence with memory_order_release ordering prevents all preceding writes from moving past all subsequent stores.

Examples

const int num_mailboxes = 32;
std::atomic<int> mailbox[num_mailboxes];
 
// The writer threads update non-atomic shared data and then update mailbox[i] as follows
std::atomic_store_explicit(&mailbox[i], receiver_id, std::memory_order_release);
 
// Reader thread needs to check all mailbox[i], but only needs to sync with one
for (int i = 0; i < num_mailboxes; ++i) {
    if (std::atomic_load_explicit(&mailbox[i], std::memory_order_relaxed) == my_id) {
        std::atomic_thread_fence(std::memory_order_acquire); // synchronize with just one writer
        do_work(i); // guaranteed to observe everything done in the writer thread before
                    // the atomic_store_explicit()
    }
 }

See also