Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: noalias comments to X3J11
Message-ID: <1988Mar31.071424.6508@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <12578@brl-adm.ARPA> <1988Mar25.172355.348@utzoo.uucp>, <597@tuvie>
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 88 07:14:24 GMT

> Signal handlers will be at least very similar to interrupt routines. ... it
> does not seem to be esoteric to me, if I set a flag in such a handler. ...
> ... how to tell the compiler it must not `optimize' the access to
> this flag?

It is very difficult to say much about what signal handlers can do safely.
Essentially the *one* thing that X3J11 guarantees is that they can set a
flag of type sig_atomic_t, an implementation-defined type that can have
any desired magic properties.
-- 
"Noalias must go.  This is           |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
non-negotiable."  --DMR              | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry