What are some examples of atomic operations in C?

What are some examples of atomic operations in C?

Atomic operations in C are operations that complete in a single step relative to other threads. Examples include atomic increment, compare-and-swap, and atomic load/store.

Can you explain how atomic increment works?

Sure! Atomic increment ensures that the value is increased by one without interference from other threads, using functions like __atomic_fetch_add.

What libraries support atomic operations in C?

The C11 standard introduced the <stdatomic.h> library, which provides built-in support for atomic operations.

Are atomic operations faster than mutexes?

Yes, atomic operations are generally faster than mutexes because they avoid the overhead of locking and unlocking.