Is the != check thread safe?

Question

I know that compound operations such as i++ are not thread safe as they involve multiple operations.

But is checking the reference with itself a t

Answer 1

It has all been well explained by Stephen C. For fun, you could try to run the same code with the following JVM parameters:

-XX:InlineSmallCode=0

This should prevent the optimisation done by the JIT (it does on hotspot 7 server) and you will see true forever (I stopped at 2,000,000 but I suppose it continues after that).

For information, below is the JIT'ed code. To be honest, I don't read assembly fluently enough to know if the test is actually done or where the two loads come from. (line 26 is the test flag = a != a and line 31 is the closing brace of the while(true)).

  # {method} 'run' '()V' in 'javaapplication27/TestThreadSafety$1'
  0x00000000027dcc80: int3   
  0x00000000027dcc81: data32 data32 nop WORD PTR [rax+rax*1+0x0]
  0x00000000027dcc8c: data32 data32 xchg ax,ax
  0x00000000027dcc90: mov    DWORD PTR [rsp-0x6000],eax
  0x00000000027dcc97: push   rbp
  0x00000000027dcc98: sub    rsp,0x40
  0x00000000027dcc9c: mov    rbx,QWORD PTR [rdx+0x8]
  0x00000000027dcca0: mov    rbp,QWORD PTR [rdx+0x18]
  0x00000000027dcca4: mov    rcx,rdx
  0x00000000027dcca7: movabs r10,0x6e1a7680
  0x00000000027dccb1: call   r10
  0x00000000027dccb4: test   rbp,rbp
  0x00000000027dccb7: je     0x00000000027dccdd
  0x00000000027dccb9: mov    r10d,DWORD PTR [rbp+0x8]
  0x00000000027dccbd: cmp    r10d,0xefc158f4    ;   {oop('javaapplication27/TestThreadSafety$1')}
  0x00000000027dccc4: jne    0x00000000027dccf1
  0x00000000027dccc6: test   rbp,rbp
  0x00000000027dccc9: je     0x00000000027dcce1
  0x00000000027dcccb: cmp    r12d,DWORD PTR [rbp+0xc]
  0x00000000027dcccf: je     0x00000000027dcce1  ;*goto
                                                ; - javaapplication27.TestThreadSafety$1::run@62 (line 31)
  0x00000000027dccd1: add    rbx,0x1            ; OopMap{rbp=Oop off=85}
                                                ;*goto
                                                ; - javaapplication27.TestThreadSafety$1::run@62 (line 31)
  0x00000000027dccd5: test   DWORD PTR [rip+0xfffffffffdb53325],eax        # 0x0000000000330000
                                                ;*goto
                                                ; - javaapplication27.TestThreadSafety$1::run@62 (line 31)
                                                ;   {poll}
  0x00000000027dccdb: jmp    0x00000000027dccd1
  0x00000000027dccdd: xor    ebp,ebp
  0x00000000027dccdf: jmp    0x00000000027dccc6
  0x00000000027dcce1: mov    edx,0xffffff86
  0x00000000027dcce6: mov    QWORD PTR [rsp+0x20],rbx
  0x00000000027dcceb: call   0x00000000027a90a0  ; OopMap{rbp=Oop off=112}
                                                ;*aload_0
                                                ; - javaapplication27.TestThreadSafety$1::run@2 (line 26)
                                                ;   {runtime_call}
  0x00000000027dccf0: int3   
  0x00000000027dccf1: mov    edx,0xffffffad
  0x00000000027dccf6: mov    QWORD PTR [rsp+0x20],rbx
  0x00000000027dccfb: call   0x00000000027a90a0  ; OopMap{rbp=Oop off=128}
                                                ;*aload_0
                                                ; - javaapplication27.TestThreadSafety$1::run@2 (line 26)
                                                ;   {runtime_call}
  0x00000000027dcd00: int3                      ;*aload_0
                                                ; - javaapplication27.TestThreadSafety$1::run@2 (line 26)
  0x00000000027dcd01: int3