Thread-safe, lock-free increment function?

Question

UPDATED: Is there a thread-safe, lock-free and available on all Linux distros increment function available in C or C++ ?

Answer 1

The current C and C++ standards don't define such a thing. Your implementation may well have one.

Answer 2

I think these are GNU extensions, and processor specific, but have a look at GNU C Atomic Builtins.

I think there are also atomic "libraries" available that use inline assembly etc. to provide such features.

Answer 3

GLib has functions to do this. You might check out http://library.gnome.org/devel/glib/stable/glib-Atomic-Operations.html

Specifically, it sounds like you want g_atomic_int_inc()