I asked a collection of knowledgeable people I know about the issue. The consensus is that the optimization is not permitted in POSIX code but that it is permitted in pure C code. The basic argument goes like this:
To make POSIX-compliant code even possible, surely optimizations that add writes to variables must be prohibited. That is -- if POSIX prohibits writing to a variable in certain cases only the programmer can detect, then a POSIX-compliant compiler cannot write to a variable except where explicitly told to do so. Any optimization that *adds* a write to a variable that would not otherwise occur *must* be prohibited. Otherwise, it is literally impossible to comply with the POSIX requirement that concurrent modifications and reads to shared variables take place while holding a mutex. The simplest solution is simply to ditch the optimization. If it really isn't even an optimization, then that's an easy way out. DS - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/