在实现无锁数据结构时必须使用volatile。否则，编译器可以自由地优化对变量的访问，这将改变语义。

换句话说，volatile告诉编译器对这个变量的访问必须对应于物理内存的读/写操作。

例如，这是Win32 API中InterlockedIncrement的声明方式:

LONG __cdecl InterlockedIncrement(
  __inout  LONG volatile *Addend
);

volatile关键字的目的是防止编译器对可能以编译器无法确定的方式改变的对象应用任何优化。

声明为volatile的对象在优化中被省略，因为它们的值可以被当前代码范围之外的代码随时更改。系统总是从内存位置读取volatile对象的当前值，而不是在请求时将其值保存在临时寄存器中，即使之前的指令从同一对象中请求一个值。

考虑以下情况

1)由中断服务例程在作用域外修改的全局变量。

2)多线程应用程序中的全局变量。

如果不使用volatile限定符，可能会出现以下问题

1)当优化被打开时，代码可能不会像预期的那样工作。

2)当中断被启用和使用时，代码可能不会像预期的那样工作。

Volatile:程序员最好的朋友

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatile_ (computer_programming)

我曾经在调试构建中使用过它，当编译器坚持要优化掉一个变量时，我希望在逐步执行代码时能够看到这个变量。

我想引用Herb Sutter在GotW #95中的一句话，这有助于理解volatile变量的含义:

C++ volatile variables (which have no analog in languages like C# and Java) are always beyond the scope of this and any other article about the memory model and synchronization. That’s because C++ volatile variables aren’t about threads or communication at all and don’t interact with those things. Rather, a C++ volatile variable should be viewed as portal into a different universe beyond the language — a memory location that by definition does not obey the language’s memory model because that memory location is accessed by hardware (e.g., written to by a daughter card), have more than one address, or is otherwise “strange” and beyond the language. So C++ volatile variables are universally an exception to every guideline about synchronization because are always inherently “racy” and unsynchronizable using the normal tools (mutexes, atomics, etc.) and more generally exist outside all normal of the language and compiler including that they generally cannot be optimized by the compiler (because the compiler isn’t allowed to know their semantics; a volatile int vi; may not behave anything like a normal int, and you can’t even assume that code like vi = 5; int read_back = vi; is guaranteed to result in read_back == 5, or that code like int i = vi; int j = vi; that reads vi twice will result in i == j which will not be true if vi is a hardware counter for example).

在开发嵌入式系统或设备驱动程序时，需要使用Volatile，因为在这些驱动程序中需要读写内存映射的硬件设备。特定设备寄存器的内容随时都可能改变，所以你需要volatile关键字来确保这样的访问不会被编译器优化。

我应该提醒你的一个用法是，在信号处理函数中，如果你想访问/修改一个全局变量(例如，将其标记为exit = true)，你必须将该变量声明为'volatile'。