[Boost-users] [atomic] can it bechecked that boost::atomic<T> *v = reinterpret_cast<boost::atomic<T>*>(var); is safe?

Subject: [Boost-users] [atomic] can it bechecked that boost::atomic<T> *v = reinterpret_cast<boost::atomic<T>*>(var); is safe?
From: Tim Odenthal (Tim.Odenthal_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-09-15 07:31:35

Dear experts,

essentially, I use this type of reinterpret_cast for doubles, and it __seems__ to work fine. I compile-time check that the sizeof(boost::atomic<T>) == sizeof( T ), but is that enough to ensure that this will always work? Should/could I check alignment issues as well? Even if the "atomic_cast" function has a (small) run-time overhead, it would be very much worth it in my setting, where I actually want to safely add to a double at some location in memory. Obviously, I want to use boost::atomic to be system/compiler agnostic, since it's supposed to eventually run with clang, gcc, (linux, OS X) as well as MS compilers, and so far we didn't see the need to move to C++11...

Thanks for any advice in advance

Tim