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Date:   Mon, 20 Jul 2020 12:12:36 -0400
From:   Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
To:     Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
Cc:     Dave Chinner <david@fromorbit.com>,
        Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-arch@vger.kernel.org,
        "Paul E . McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>,
        linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, Akira Yokosawa <akiyks@gmail.com>,
        Andrea Parri <parri.andrea@gmail.com>,
        Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@gmail.com>,
        Daniel Lustig <dlustig@nvidia.com>,
        "Darrick J . Wong" <darrick.wong@oracle.com>,
        David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>,
        Jade Alglave <j.alglave@ucl.ac.uk>,
        Luc Maranget <luc.maranget@inria.fr>,
        Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@gmail.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
        Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] tools/memory-model: document the "one-time init" pattern
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On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 04:39:11PM +0100, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> Honestly, even the term "release semantics" trips me up _every_ time.
> It's a barrier to understanding because I have to translate it into "Oh,
> he means it's like an unlock".  Why can't you just say "unlock semantics"?

It's not as bad as all that; people do talk about acquiring and 
releasing locks, and presumably you don't have any trouble understanding 
those terms.  In fact this usage is quite common -- and I believe it's 
where the names "acquire semantics" and "release semantics" came from 
originally.

Alan Stern