From bebbe24a6331ac2ea9f4d77466bedebb99f05709 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Gray Olson Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2023 20:14:05 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] improve `Pin` struct docs and add examples --- library/core/src/pin.rs | 97 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 89 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/library/core/src/pin.rs b/library/core/src/pin.rs index 40dfb389487..c1f82bf6f8b 100644 --- a/library/core/src/pin.rs +++ b/library/core/src/pin.rs @@ -900,14 +900,17 @@ use crate::{ /// A pointer which pins its pointee in place. /// /// [`Pin`] is a wrapper around some kind of pointer `Ptr` which makes that pointer "pin" its -/// pointee value in place, thus preventing the value referenced by that pointer from being moved or -/// otherwise invalidated at that place in memory unless it implements [`Unpin`]. +/// pointee value in place, thus preventing the value referenced by that pointer from being moved +/// or otherwise invalidated at that place in memory unless it implements [`Unpin`]. +/// +/// *See the [`pin` module] documentation for a more thorough exploration of pinning.* /// /// ## Pinning values with [`Pin`] /// /// In order to pin a value, we wrap a *pointer to that value* (of some type `Ptr`) in a /// [`Pin`]. [`Pin`] can wrap any pointer type, forming a promise that the **pointee** -/// will not be *moved* or [otherwise invalidated][subtle-details]. +/// will not be *moved* or [otherwise invalidated][subtle-details]. Note that it is impossible +/// to create or misuse a [`Pin`] which can violate this promise without using [`unsafe`]. /// /// We call such a [`Pin`]-wrapped pointer a **pinning pointer,** (or pinning ref, or pinning /// [`Box`], etc.) because its existince is the thing that is pinning the underlying pointee in @@ -917,13 +920,91 @@ use crate::{ /// itself, but rather a pointer to that value! A [`Pin`] does not pin the `Ptr` but rather /// the pointer's ***pointee** value*. /// -/// `Pin

` is guaranteed to have the same memory layout and ABI as `P`. +/// For the vast majoriy of Rust types, pinning a value of that type will actually have no effect. +/// This is because the vast majority of types implement the [`Unpin`] trait, which entirely opts +/// all values of that type out of pinning-related guarantees. The most common exception +/// to this is the compiler-generated types that implement [`Future`] for the return value +/// of `async fn`s. These compiler-generated [`Future`]s do not implement [`Unpin`] for reasons +/// explained more in the [`pin` module] docs, but suffice it to say they require the guarantees +/// provided by pinning to be implemented soundly. /// -/// *See the [`pin` module] documentation for a more thorough exploration of pinning.* +/// This requirement in the implementation of `async fn`s means that the [`Future`] trait requires +/// any [`Future`] to be pinned in order to call [`poll`] on it. Therefore, when manually polling +/// a future, you will need to pin it first. /// -/// [`pin` module]: self -/// [`Box`]: ../../std/boxed/struct.Box.html -/// [subtle-details]: self#subtle-details-and-the-drop-guarantee +/// ### Pinning a value inside a [`Box`] +/// +/// The simplest and most flexible way to pin a value is to put that value inside a [`Box`] and +/// then turn that [`Box`] into a "pinning [`Box`]" by wrapping it in a [`Pin`]. +/// You can do both of these in a single step using [`Box::pin`]. Let's see an example of using +/// this flow to pin a [`Future`] returned from calling an `async fn`, a common use case +/// as described above. +/// +/// ``` +/// use std::pin::Pin; +/// +/// async fn add_one(x: u32) -> u32 { +/// x + 1 +/// } +/// +/// // Call the async function to get a future back +/// let fut = add_one(42); +/// +/// // Pin the future inside a pinning box +/// let pinned_fut: Pin> = Box::pin(fut); +/// ``` +/// +/// If you have a value which is already boxed, for example a [`Box`][Box], you can pin +/// that value in-place at its current memory address using [`Box::into_pin`]. +/// +/// ``` +/// use std::pin::Pin; +/// use std::future::Future; +/// +/// async fn add_one(x: u32) -> u32 { +/// x + 1 +/// } +/// +/// fn boxed_add_one(x: u32) -> Box> { +/// Box::new(add_one(x)) +/// } +/// +/// let boxed_fut = boxed_add_one(42); +/// +/// // Pin the future inside the existing box +/// let pinned_fut: Pin> = Box::into_pin(boxed_fut); +/// ``` +/// +/// There are similar pinning methods offered on the other standard library smart pointer types +/// as well, like [`Rc`] and [`Arc`]. +/// +/// ### Pinning a value on the stack using [`pin!`] +/// +/// There are some situations where it is desirable or even required (for example, in a `#[no_std]` +/// context where you don't have access to the standard library or allocation in general) to +/// pin a value to its location on the stack. Doing so is possible using the [`pin!`] macro. See +/// its documentation for more. +/// +/// ## Layout and ABI +/// +/// [`Pin`] is guaranteed to have the same memory layout and ABI[^noalias] as `Ptr`. +/// +/// [^noalias]: There is a bit of nuance here that is still being decided about whether the +/// aliasing semantics of `Pin<&mut T>` should be different than `&mut T`, but this is true as of +/// today. +/// +/// [`pin!`]: crate::pin::pin "pin!" +/// [`Future`]: crate::future::Future "Future" +/// [`poll`]: crate::future::Future::poll "Future::poll" +/// [`pin` module]: self "pin module" +/// [`Rc`]: ../../std/rc/struct.Rc.html "Rc" +/// [`Arc`]: ../../std/sync/struct.Arc.html "Arc" +/// [Box]: ../../std/boxed/struct.Box.html "Box" +/// [`Box`]: ../../std/boxed/struct.Box.html "Box" +/// [`Box::pin`]: ../../std/boxed/struct.Box.html#method.pin "Box::pin" +/// [`Box::into_pin`]: ../../std/boxed/struct.Box.html#method.into_pin "Box::into_pin" +/// [subtle-details]: self#subtle-details-and-the-drop-guarantee "pin subtle details" +/// [`unsafe`]: ../../std/keyword.unsafe.html "keyword unsafe" // // Note: the `Clone` derive below causes unsoundness as it's possible to implement // `Clone` for mutable references.