busy-wait

busy-wait
 vi.

   Used of human behavior, conveys that the subject is busy waiting for
   someone or something, intends to move instantly as soon as it shows
   up, and thus cannot do anything else at the moment. "Can't talk now,
   I'm busy-waiting till Bill gets off the phone."

   Technically, busy-wait means to wait on an event by {spin}ning through
   a tight or timed-delay loop that polls for the event on each pass, as
   opposed to setting up an interrupt handler and continuing execution on
   another part of the task. In applications this is a wasteful
   technique, and best avoided on timesharing systems where a
   busy-waiting program may {hog} the processor. However, it is often
   unavoidable in kernel programming. In the Linux world, kernel
   busy-waits are usually referred to as spinlocks.
    

busy-wait

   <programming> To wait for an {event} by {spinning} through a
   {tight loop} or timed-delay loop that {polls} for the event on
   each pass, as opposed to setting up an {interrupt handler} and
   continuing execution on another part of the task.  This is a
   wasteful technique, best avoided on {time-sharing} systems
   where a busy-waiting program may {hog} the processor.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1999-06-10)