Atomics

Every Rust developer who’s written lock-free code has written the same compare_exchange loop. Rust 1.95 finally gives atomics an update method that does it for you.

The old way

Atomically doubling a counter used to mean writing a retry loop yourself:

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use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};

let counter = AtomicUsize::new(10);

loop {
    let current = counter.load(Ordering::Relaxed);
    let new_val = current * 2;
    match counter.compare_exchange(
        current, new_val,
        Ordering::SeqCst, Ordering::Relaxed,
    ) {
        Ok(_) => break,
        Err(_) => continue,
    }
}
// counter is now 20

It works, but it’s boilerplate — and easy to get wrong (use the wrong ordering, forget to retry, etc.).

The new way: update

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use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};

let counter = AtomicUsize::new(10);

counter.update(Ordering::SeqCst, Ordering::SeqCst, |x| x * 2);
// counter is now 20

One line. No loop. No chance of forgetting to retry on contention.

The method takes two orderings (one for the store on success, one for the load on failure) and a closure that transforms the current value. It handles the compare-and-swap retry loop internally.

It returns the previous value

Just like fetch_add and friends, update returns the value before the update:

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use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};

let counter = AtomicUsize::new(5);

let prev = counter.update(Ordering::SeqCst, Ordering::SeqCst, |x| x + 3);
assert_eq!(prev, 5);  // was 5
assert_eq!(counter.load(Ordering::SeqCst), 8);  // now 8

This makes it perfect for “fetch-and-modify” patterns where you need the old value.

Works on all atomic types

update isn’t just for AtomicUsize — it’s available on AtomicBool, AtomicIsize, AtomicUsize, and AtomicPtr too:

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use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicBool, Ordering};

let flag = AtomicBool::new(false);
flag.update(Ordering::SeqCst, Ordering::SeqCst, |x| !x);
assert_eq!(flag.load(Ordering::SeqCst), true);

When to use update vs fetch_add

If your operation is a simple add, sub, or bitwise op, the specialized fetch_* methods are still better — they compile down to a single atomic instruction on most architectures.

Use update when your transformation is more complex: clamping, toggling state machines, applying arbitrary functions. Anywhere you’d previously hand-roll a CAS loop.

Summary

Available on stable since Rust 1.95.0 for AtomicBool, AtomicIsize, AtomicUsize, and AtomicPtr.