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Given code such as

(defun some-code ()
  (url-retrieve my-url #'my-callback)
  (setq *a-global-var* (some-func *a-global-var*))
  ...)

(defun my-callback (status &rest args)
  (setq *a-global-var* (another-func *a-global-var*)))

How can I ensure that the two updates of *a-global-var* happen atomically? In other words, how can I prevent the callback from changing *a-global-var* while some-func is running? I searched the Emacs documentation for a while, but I didn't find anything on the semantics of asynchronous operations.

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  • What do asynchronously executed callbacks have to do with atomicity? That aside, what definition of it do you use here? I'd be seriously concerned if the mere act of setting a variable were to fail halfway...
    – wasamasa
    Commented Jun 21, 2017 at 16:56
  • 1
    "I didn't find anything on the semantics of asynchronous operations." - Emacs doesn't have asynchronous operations, hence no semantics.
    – npostavs
    Commented Jun 21, 2017 at 18:16
  • can you just wrap it in atomic-change-group? gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/…
    – John Kitchin
    Commented Jun 21, 2017 at 22:20
  • @JohnKitchin My understanding of atomic-change-group is that it's about changes to buffers, not updates to variable values.
    – khinsen
    Commented Jun 22, 2017 at 17:58
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    The comment of npostavs is important. url-retrieve uses url-http which uses sentinels for the callback. Sentinels only run when emacs is waiting for user input. See: the section Sentinels of the elisp-documentation. So you do not have the problem of non-atomic writes to a variable.
    – Tobias
    Commented Jun 23, 2017 at 9:14

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@npostavs made this comment on the question:

"I didn't find anything on the semantics of asynchronous operations." - Emacs doesn't have asynchronous operations, hence no semantics.

That comment is important. url-retrieve uses url-http which uses sentinels for the callback. Sentinels only run when emacs is waiting for user input. See: the section Sentinels of the elisp-documentation. So you do not have the problem of non-atomic writes to a variable.

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