Atomic Reference

Definitions

1. A reference holder that supports thread-safe atomic reads and swaps so shared pointers or objects can be updated without races. Atomic references are often used in lock-free or low-lock designs where readers should see either the old or new value, but never a corrupted intermediate state.

   In plain English: A thread-safe reference that can be updated atomically.

   Example: "The config reloader published each new settings object through an atomic reference so workers could switch instantly without pausing traffic."

Related Terms

• Actor
• Async
• Async/Await
• asyncio
• BEAM
• Memory Model
• Memory Order
• Atomic Counter