Re: [PATCH 0/2] eventfd: new EFD_STATE flag

["Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@redhat.com>]

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 07:21:49AM -0700, Davide Libenzi wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Aug 2009, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> 
> > > Ok, so why not using the eventfd counter as state?
> > > On the device side:
> > > 
> > > void write_state(int sfd, int state) {
> > > 	u64 cnt;
> > > 
> > > 	/* Clear the current state, sfd is in non-blocking mode */
> > > 	read(sfd,&cnt, sizeof(cnt));
> > > 	/* Writes new state */
> > > 	cnt = 1 + !!state;
> > > 	write(sfd,&cnt, sizeof(cnt));
> > > }
> > 
> > It's interesting [no sarcasm intended, mind] that EFD_SEMAPHORE was
> > added exactly to avoid a read+write combination for the case of
> > decrementing a value.
> 
> Like I repeated 25 times already, EFD_SEMAPHORE was added, because a 
> *semaphore* is a pretty widely known and used abstraction.

what about an atomic variable, btw?  does it make sense to implement
write that does compare and exchange?

> 
> - Davide
>