iocounter
iocounter is a term used in computer systems to refer to a counter that tracks the number of outstanding input/output I/O operations on a resource. It serves as a synchronization aid to determine when all in-flight I/O has completed and can be safely cleaned up or reclaimed. The concept is common in low-level systems such as device drivers, filesystems, and asynchronous I/O frameworks, where operations may complete out of order or after the initiating code has progressed.
In typical implementations, an iocounter is an atomic integer or a similar synchronization primitive. The counter
Common usage patterns include safe teardown of resources (ensuring no I/O remains in flight before freeing
Limitations and considerations include handling counter overflow, avoiding races between issuing and finishing I/O, and ensuring
See also: atomic counters, I/O completion, synchronization primitives, resource lifecycle management.