Re: Unable to compile when using BOOST_DETAIL_SPINLOCK_INIT

From: Gavin Lambert (boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2023-02-09 04:43:51

On 9/02/2023 13:15, radiatejava wrote:
> I have an existing code for an application that uses
> BOOST_DETAIL_SPINLOCK_INIT from  boost/smart_ptr/detail/spinlock.hpp.
> It is all fine when using with boost ver 1.53. I am trying to migrate
> to boost ver 1.66 and now this compilation fails. To isolate the
> issue, I have a sample program:
> 
> #include <iostream>
> #include <boost/smart_ptr/detail/spinlock.hpp>
> class BoostTest {
>      public:
>      BoostTest(int v): val(v), bLock(BOOST_DETAIL_SPINLOCK_INIT) {

Note that 1.66 is five years old; you may want to consider migrating to 
something newer, if possible...

Whenever you see "detail" in Boost, this means "this is an 
implementation detail", aka "do not use this in your own code", aka 
"here be dragons".

So the best way to fix this is to stop using it and replace it with a 
supported spinlock implementation, or another synchronization mechanism 
from Boost.Thread: 
https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_66_0/doc/html/thread.html

AFAIK Boost does not have a supported public spinlock, since they are 
only rarely the correct solution (and most thread mutexes incorporate 
some spinning automatically).  However Boost.Atomic does have an example 
sketch of one in its docs, though it has some caveats depending how you 
implement the busy-wait part.