linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] atomic: Fix bugs in 'fetch_or()' and rename it to 'xchg

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Date:	Tue, 15 Mar 2016 13:08:35 +0100
From:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
To:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
Cc:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Frédéric Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] atomic: Fix bugs in 'fetch_or()' and rename it to
 'xchg_or()'


* Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 10:32:45AM +0100, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> >  2) its naming sucks. "fetch_or()" does not really signal that it's a
> >     fundamentally atomic operation, nor what API family it belongs to.
> 
> I disagree there, the fetch-$op naming is widely used for atomic
> operations that return the previous value. See for example the C/C++11
> atomic ops.

The problem I see is that we don't really have the fetch_*() naming in the kernel 
right now, while we do have the xchg_*() naming. The latter is 'obviously' an 
atomic operation - while 'fetch' could be anything.

No strong opinion, but I think fetch_or() is not a particularly good name.

Thanks,

	Ingo