Race Condition
/reɪs kənˈdɪʃən/race con·di·tionnoun
Definition
1.[in concurrent programming] a defect in which the correctness of a result depends on the unpredictable relative timing of two or more independent threads of execution.
The counter lost updates under load — a classic race condition on the read-modify-write.
Etymology
From the image of two signals racing to arrive first, borrowed from electrical engineering, where competing paths through a logic circuit could settle in either order. In use for digital logic from the 1950s.
Synonyms
- data racesense 1 · Near
Antonyms
- thread safetysense 1 · Relational
See also
References
- Lamport, L. (1978). Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System.Communications of the ACM, 21(7), 558–565.