14 lines
2.5 KiB
HTML
14 lines
2.5 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>busy-wait</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../B.html" title="B"/><link rel="previous" href="burst-page.html" title="burst page"/><link rel="next" href="buzz.html" title="buzz"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">busy-wait</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="burst-page.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">B</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="buzz.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="busy-wait"/><dt xmlns="" id="busy-wait"><b>busy-wait</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">vi.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> Used of human behavior, conveys that the subject is busy waiting for
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someone or something, intends to move instantly as soon as it shows up, and
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thus cannot do anything else at the moment. “<span class="quote">Can't talk now, I'm
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busy-waiting till Bill gets off the phone.</span>”</p><p>Technically, <span class="firstterm">busy-wait</span> means to
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wait on an event by <a href="../S/spin.html"><i class="glossterm">spin</i></a>ning through a tight or
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timed-delay loop that polls for the event on each pass, as opposed to
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setting up an interrupt handler and continuing execution on another part of
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the task. In applications this is a wasteful technique, and best avoided
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on timesharing systems where a busy-waiting program may
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<a href="../H/hog.html"><i class="glossterm">hog</i></a> the processor. However, it is often unavoidable
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in kernel programming. In the Linux world, kernel busy-waits are usually
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referred to as <span class="firstterm">spinlocks</span>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="burst-page.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../B.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="buzz.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">burst page </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> buzz</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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