Non-blocking linked list
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A non-blocking linked list is an example of non-blocking data structures designed to implement a linked list in shared memory using synchronization primitives:
Operations on lock-free linked lists
Insertion
Basic idea
- search for the right spot in the list
- insert using [Compare-and-swap]
Deletion
Basic idea
- search for the right spot in the list
- insert using [Compare-and-swap]
Problem
- a process deleting node B requires an atomic action on the node's predecessor
- concurrently another process tries to insert a node C after node B (B.next=C)
- node B is deleted from the list but C is gone along with it
Solutions
- place a 'mark'
in the next pointer of the soon-to-be deleted node
- fail when we try to CAS the 'mark'
- when detected go back to start of the list and restart
See also
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg?lang=en){kind=small} | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (November 2014) |
Further reading
- A Pragmatic Implementation of Non-blocking Linked-Lists, Timothy L Harris
References
- ^ Harris, T. (2001), A Pragmatic Implementation of Non-Blocking Linked Lists, DISC '01 Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Distributed Computing, Springer-Verlag London, UK, pp. 300–314
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