Re: [SOLVED + PATCH]: documented Oops running big-endian reiserfs

[Linus Torvalds]

In article <[e-mail]>,
David S. Miller <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
>Oh thats different!  That won't even work %100 correctly on x86.  On
>x86 it will "execute", but it won't be atomic.

Actually, it will.  Intel definitely discourages it, but they'll lock
both cache-lines if the access is unaligned and crosses.  So while they
encourage natural alignment for atomic accesses, I think they also
guarantee that they always work - it ends up being only a performance
issue. 

I agree that it is bad practice, though, and I bet that the x86 is one
of the very few architectures that _will_ do this naturally.

		Linus