The Rust borrow checker

I’ve been having fun with Rust lately.

Rust is notoriously difficult, but at some point it clicks and starts to look like any language: structs and methods. Except you don’t have to worry about a bad free() causing a vulnerability, or basic string operation segfaulting.

Success with Rust’s memory model depends on understanding a few core concepts, and this post will go over references (and when to avoid them).

My first mistake was to think of references (&T) as pointers. While they’re related, there’s many cases where you’d use a pointer in other languages but shouldn’t use a reference. Rust even has a non-reference type (Box) that represents a pointer.

If you don’t have a local Rust install, everything in this post runs in the Rust Playground.

Owned variables

Regular variables in Rust are “owned.” They’re single-assignment, and if reassigned or used as an argument, they “move” and can’t be used after. In this case, once we call say_hello, we transfer ownership of g to that function, and can’t reference it again.

struct Greeter {
    name: String,
}

impl Greeter {
    fn new() -> Self {
        Self {
            name: "Rust".to_string(),
        }
    }
    fn greeting(self) -> String {
        format!("Hello, {}!", self.name)
    }
}

fn say_hello(g: Greeter) {
    println!("{}", g.greeting());
}

fn main() {
    // "g" is an "owned" value.
    let g = Greeter::new();
    say_hello(g); // "g" is moved here. Can no longer be accessed.
}

When composing structs or returning values, default to owned variables rather than references. You can take references later, but can’t turn a referenced variable into an owned one.

use std::fs;
use std::net;

// This code uses owned variables, rather than references.
fn new_session() -> Session {
	Session { /* ... */ }
}
struct Session {
    // ...
}
struct Logger {
    out: fs::File,
}
struct Server {
    stream: net::TcpStream,
    sessions: Vec<Session>,
    logger: Logger,
}

References

Instead of moving a variable, we can let functions “borrow” it with a reference. Unlike C, &T is the syntax for creating a reference and a reference type. Functions that receive a reference use fn foo(&T) not fn foo(*T).

We’ll change the greeting() function to take a reference, and can then call say_hello() without moving the variable.

​​struct Greeter {
    name: String,
}

impl Greeter {
    fn new() -> Self {
        Self {
            name: "Rust".to_string(),
        }
    }
    fn greeting(&self) -> String {
        format!("Hello, {}!", self.name)
    }
}

fn say_hello(g: &Greeter) {
    println!("{}", g.greeting());
}

fn main() {
    // "g" is an "owned" value.
    let g = Greeter::new();
    say_hello(&g); // No move, "g" is now borrowed.
    say_hello(&g)
}

Variables and references are immutable by default. To make them mutable, they must be annotated as mut T. The calling code doesn’t change, but because of the &mut self receiver, set_name() can now modify struct fields on Greeter.

struct Greeter {
    name: String,
}

impl Greeter {
    fn new() -> Self {
        Self {
            name: "Rust".to_string(),
        }
    }
    fn greeting(&self) -> String {
        format!("Hello, {}!", self.name)
    }
    fn set_name(&mut self, name: String) {
        self.name = name;
    }
}

fn main() {
    // "g" is an "owned" value.
    let mut g = Greeter::new();
    println!("{}", g.greeting());
    g.set_name("Borrower".to_string());
    println!("{}", g.greeting());
}

Concurrency

Rust shines in concurrent programs, where the compiler guarantees safety based on references and mutability.

Because greeting() takes an immutable reference, Rust knows threads can call the function simultaneously without synchronizing.

use lazy_static::lazy_static;
use std::thread;

lazy_static! {
    // Global "Greeter" instance.
    static ref GREETER: Greeter = Greeter::new();
}

struct Greeter {
    name: String,
}

impl Greeter {
    fn new() -> Self {
        Self {
            name: "Rust".to_string(),
        }
    }
    fn greeting(&self) -> String {
        format!("Hello, {}!", self.name)
    }
}

fn main() {
    let mut threads = Vec::new();
    for _ in 0..10 {
        threads.push(thread::spawn(move || {
            println!("{}", GREETER.greeting()); // No locking required.
        }));
    }
    for t in threads {
        t.join().unwrap();
    }
}

Only one thread can hold a mutable reference at once, so for multiple threads to set_name(), we’ll need a locking primitive. In this case, we’ll use a mutex and lock in each thread.

use lazy_static::lazy_static;
use std::sync;
use std::thread;

lazy_static! {
    // Global "Greeter" instance guarded by a mutex.
    static ref GREETER: sync::Mutex<Greeter> = sync::Mutex::new(Greeter::new());
}

struct Greeter {
    name: String,
}

impl Greeter {
    fn new() -> Self {
        Self {
            name: "Rust".to_string(),
        }
    }
    fn set_name(&mut self, name: String) {
        self.name = name
    }
    fn greeting(&self) -> String {
        format!("Hello, {}!", self.name)
    }
}

fn main() {
    let mut threads = Vec::new();
    for i in 0..10 {
        threads.push(thread::spawn(move || {
            let mut g = GREETER.lock().unwrap();
            g.set_name(format!("Thread #{}", i + 1));
            println!("{}", g.greeting());
        }));
    }
    for t in threads {
        t.join().unwrap();
    }
}

That’s an awesome thing about Rust. Even with threaded code, if it compiles, it’s memory safe.