diff --git a/absl/base/const_init.h b/absl/base/const_init.h
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+// Copyright 2017 The Abseil Authors.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//      https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+//
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// kConstInit
+// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+//
+// A constructor tag used to mark an object as safe for use as a global
+// variable, avoiding the usual lifetime issues that can affect globals.
+
+#ifndef ABSL_BASE_CONST_INIT_H_
+#define ABSL_BASE_CONST_INIT_H_
+
+// In general, objects with static storage duration (such as global variables)
+// can trigger tricky object lifetime situations.  Attempting to access them
+// from the constructors or destructors of other global objects can result in
+// undefined behavior, unless their constructors and destructors are designed
+// with this issue in mind.
+//
+// The normal way to deal with this issue in C++11 is to use constant
+// initialization and trivial destructors.
+//
+// Constant initialization is guaranteed to occur before any other code
+// executes.  Constructors that are declared 'constexpr' are eligible for
+// constant initialization.  You can annotate a variable declaration with the
+// ABSL_CONST_INIT macro to express this intent.  For compilers that support
+// it, this annotation will cause a compilation error for declarations that
+// aren't subject to constant initialization (perhaps because a runtime value
+// was passed as a constructor argument).
+//
+// On program shutdown, lifetime issues can be avoided on global objects by
+// ensuring that they contain  trivial destructors.  A class has a trivial
+// destructor unless it has a user-defined destructor, a virtual method or base
+// class, or a data member or base class with a non-trivial destructor of its
+// own.  Objects with static storage duration and a trivial destructor are not
+// cleaned up on program shutdown, and are thus safe to access from other code
+// running during shutdown.
+//
+// For a few core Abseil classes, we make a best effort to allow for safe global
+// instances, even though these classes have non-trivial destructors.  These
+// objects can be created with the absl::kConstInit tag.  For example:
+//   ABSL_CONST_INIT absl::Mutex global_mutex(absl::kConstInit);
+//
+// The line above declares a global variable of type absl::Mutex which can be
+// accessed at any point during startup or shutdown.  global_mutex's destructor
+// will still run, but will not invalidate the object.  Note that C++ specifies
+// that accessing an object after its destructor has run results in undefined
+// behavior, but this pattern works on the toolchains we support.
+//
+// The absl::kConstInit tag should only be used to define objects with static
+// or thread_local storage duration.
+
+namespace absl {
+
+enum ConstInitType {
+  kConstInit,
+};
+
+}  // namespace absl
+
+#endif  // ABSL_BASE_CONST_INIT_H_