RFR: 8315131: Clarify VarHandle set/get access on 32-bit platforms

Raffaello Giulietti rgiulietti at openjdk.org
Fri Jul 11 13:07:40 UTC 2025


On Fri, 11 Jul 2025 08:19:43 GMT, Aleksey Shipilev <shade at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> On 32 bit platforms, when an access to long/double is aligned, it is supported but not atomic. The original wording in `MethodHandles::byteBufferViewVarHandle` sounds as if it is not supported at all. We can fix that by borrowing the improved specification from `MemoryLayout::varHandle`.
>> 
>> Note: This doc is copied from https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/blob/ee0d309bbd33302d8c6f35155e975db77aaea785/src/java.base/share/classes/java/lang/foreign/MemoryLayout.java#L279-L282 with slight adjustments. See the rendering at https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/24/docs/api/java.base/java/lang/foreign/MemoryLayout.html#access-mode-restrictions
>
> src/java.base/share/classes/java/lang/invoke/MethodHandles.java line 4311:
> 
>> 4309:      *     access modes {@code get} and {@code set} for {@code long}, {@code
>> 4310:      *     double} are supported but might lead to word tearing, as described in
>> 4311:      *     Section {@jls 17.7} of <cite>The Java Language Specification</cite>.
> 
> ...except that JLS 17.7 is "Non-Atomic Treatment of double and long". Word tearing (JLS 17.6) should still be very much forbidden. This all means that [MemoryLayout.java](https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/blob/ee0d309bbd33302d8c6f35155e975db77aaea785/src/java.base/share/classes/java/lang/foreign/MemoryLayout.java#L279-L282) comment is also incorrect.
> 
> Note how the previous paragraph talks about "support atomic access", which is a correct term here.

Right, "word tearing" and "non-atomic access" are different notions.

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PR Review Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/26258#discussion_r2200683349


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