Various unchecked-uninit improvements

* Links to the std for some functions
* Mention the MaybeUninit
* Unify indentation (spaces, not tabs)
pull/130/head
Michal 'vorner' Vaner 6 years ago
parent c02e0e7754
commit 7b6cc4ffc9
No known key found for this signature in database
GPG Key ID: F700D0C019E4C66F

@ -8,10 +8,10 @@ Unfortunately this is pretty rigid, especially if you need to initialize your
array in a more incremental or dynamic way.
Unsafe Rust gives us a powerful tool to handle this problem:
`mem::uninitialized`. This function pretends to return a value when really
it does nothing at all. Using it, we can convince Rust that we have initialized
a variable, allowing us to do trickier things with conditional and incremental
initialization.
[`mem::uninitialized`][uninitialized]. This function pretends to return a value
when really it does nothing at all. Using it, we can convince Rust that we have
initialized a variable, allowing us to do trickier things with conditional and
incremental initialization.
Unfortunately, this opens us up to all kinds of problems. Assignment has a
different meaning to Rust based on whether it believes that a variable is
@ -24,9 +24,9 @@ longer safely use normal assignment.
This is also a problem if you're working with a raw system allocator, which
returns a pointer to uninitialized memory.
To handle this, we must use the `ptr` module. In particular, it provides
To handle this, we must use the [`ptr`] module. In particular, it provides
three functions that allow us to assign bytes to a location in memory without
dropping the old value: `write`, `copy`, and `copy_nonoverlapping`.
dropping the old value: [`write`], [`copy`], and [`copy_nonoverlapping`].
* `ptr::write(ptr, val)` takes a `val` and moves it into the address pointed
to by `ptr`.
@ -56,13 +56,13 @@ const SIZE: usize = 10;
let mut x: [Box<u32>; SIZE];
unsafe {
// convince Rust that x is Totally Initialized
x = mem::uninitialized();
for i in 0..SIZE {
// very carefully overwrite each index without reading it
// NOTE: exception safety is not a concern; Box can't panic
ptr::write(&mut x[i], Box::new(i as u32));
}
// convince Rust that x is Totally Initialized
x = mem::uninitialized();
for i in 0..SIZE {
// very carefully overwrite each index without reading it
// NOTE: exception safety is not a concern; Box can't panic
ptr::write(&mut x[i], Box::new(i as u32));
}
}
println!("{:?}", x);
@ -80,6 +80,19 @@ Every control path through that variable's scope must initialize the value
before it ends, if it has a destructor.
*[This includes code panicking](unwinding.html)*.
Not being careful about uninitialized memory often leads to bugs and it has been
decided the [`mem::uninitialized`][uninitialized] function should be deprecated.
The [`MaybeUninit`] type is supposed to replace it as its API wraps many common
operations needed to be done around initialized memory. This is nightly only for
now.
And that's about it for working with uninitialized memory! Basically nothing
anywhere expects to be handed uninitialized memory, so if you're going to pass
it around at all, be sure to be *really* careful.
[uninitialized]: ../std/mem/fn.uninitialized.html
[`ptr`]: ../std/ptr/index.html
[`write`]: ../std/ptr/fn.write.html
[`copy`]: ../std/ptr/fn.copy.html
[`copy_nonoverlapping`]: ../std/ptr/fn/copy_nonoverlapping.html
[`MaybeUninit`]: ../std/mem/union.MaybeUninit.html

Loading…
Cancel
Save