Derive Macro CoercePointee

#[derive(CoercePointee)]

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (derive_coerce_pointee)

Derive macro that makes a smart pointer usable with trait objects.

What this macro does

This macro is intended to be used with user-defined pointer types, and makes it possible to perform coercions on the pointee of the user-defined pointer. There are two aspects to this:

Unsizing coercions of the pointee

By using the macro, the following example will compile:

#![feature(derive_coerce_pointee)]
use std::marker::CoercePointee;
use std::ops::Deref;

#[derive(CoercePointee)]
#[repr(transparent)]
struct MySmartPointer<T: ?Sized>(Box<T>);

impl<T: ?Sized> Deref for MySmartPointer<T> {
    type Target = T;
    fn deref(&self) -> &T {
        &self.0
    }
}

trait MyTrait {}

impl MyTrait for i32 {}

fn main() {
    let ptr: MySmartPointer<i32> = MySmartPointer(Box::new(4));

    // This coercion would be an error without the derive.
    let ptr: MySmartPointer<dyn MyTrait> = ptr;
}

Without the #[derive(CoercePointee)] macro, this example would fail with the following error:

error[E0308]: mismatched types
  --> src/main.rs:11:44
   |
11 |     let ptr: MySmartPointer<dyn MyTrait> = ptr;
   |              ---------------------------   ^^^ expected `MySmartPointer<dyn MyTrait>`, found `MySmartPointer<i32>`
   |              |
   |              expected due to this
   |
   = note: expected struct `MySmartPointer<dyn MyTrait>`
              found struct `MySmartPointer<i32>`
   = help: `i32` implements `MyTrait` so you could box the found value and coerce it to the trait object `Box<dyn MyTrait>`, you will have to change the expected type as well

Dyn compatibility

This macro allows you to dispatch on the user-defined pointer type. That is, traits using the type as a receiver are dyn-compatible. For example, this compiles:

#![feature(arbitrary_self_types, derive_coerce_pointee)]
use std::marker::CoercePointee;
use std::ops::Deref;

#[derive(CoercePointee)]
#[repr(transparent)]
struct MySmartPointer<T: ?Sized>(Box<T>);

impl<T: ?Sized> Deref for MySmartPointer<T> {
    type Target = T;
    fn deref(&self) -> &T {
        &self.0
    }
}

// You can always define this trait. (as long as you have #![feature(arbitrary_self_types)])
trait MyTrait {
    fn func(self: MySmartPointer<Self>);
}

// But using `dyn MyTrait` requires #[derive(CoercePointee)].
fn call_func(value: MySmartPointer<dyn MyTrait>) {
    value.func();
}

If you remove the #[derive(CoercePointee)] annotation from the struct, then the above example will fail with this error message:

error[E0038]: the trait `MyTrait` is not dyn compatible
  --> src/lib.rs:21:36
   |
17 |     fn func(self: MySmartPointer<Self>);
   |                   -------------------- help: consider changing method `func`'s `self` parameter to be `&self`: `&Self`
...
21 | fn call_func(value: MySmartPointer<dyn MyTrait>) {
   |                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^ `MyTrait` is not dyn compatible
   |
note: for a trait to be dyn compatible it needs to allow building a vtable
      for more information, visit <https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/items/traits.html#object-safety>
  --> src/lib.rs:17:19
   |
16 | trait MyTrait {
   |       ------- this trait is not dyn compatible...
17 |     fn func(self: MySmartPointer<Self>);
   |                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ...because method `func`'s `self` parameter cannot be dispatched on

Requirements for using the macro

This macro can only be used if:

• The type is a #[repr(transparent)] struct.
• The type of its non-zero-sized field must either be a standard library pointer type (reference, raw pointer, NonNull, Box, Rc, Arc, etc.) or another user-defined type also using the #[derive(CoercePointee)] macro.
• Zero-sized fields must not mention any generic parameters unless the zero-sized field has type PhantomData.

Multiple type parameters

If the type has multiple type parameters, then you must explicitly specify which one should be used for dynamic dispatch. For example:

#[derive(CoercePointee)]
#[repr(transparent)]
struct MySmartPointer<#[pointee] T: ?Sized, U> {
    ptr: Box<T>,
    _phantom: PhantomData<U>,
}

Specifying #[pointee] when the struct has only one type parameter is allowed, but not required.

Examples

A custom implementation of the Rc type:

#![feature(derive_coerce_pointee)]
use std::marker::CoercePointee;
use std::ops::Deref;
use std::ptr::NonNull;

#[derive(CoercePointee)]
#[repr(transparent)]
pub struct Rc<T: ?Sized> {
    inner: NonNull<RcInner<T>>,
}

struct RcInner<T: ?Sized> {
    refcount: usize,
    value: T,
}

impl<T: ?Sized> Deref for Rc<T> {
    type Target = T;
    fn deref(&self) -> &T {
        let ptr = self.inner.as_ptr();
        unsafe { &(*ptr).value }
    }
}

impl<T> Rc<T> {
    pub fn new(value: T) -> Self {
        let inner = Box::new(RcInner {
            refcount: 1,
            value,
        });
        Self {
            inner: NonNull::from(Box::leak(inner)),
        }
    }
}

impl<T: ?Sized> Clone for Rc<T> {
    fn clone(&self) -> Self {
        // A real implementation would handle overflow here.
        unsafe { (*self.inner.as_ptr()).refcount += 1 };
        Self { inner: self.inner }
    }
}

impl<T: ?Sized> Drop for Rc<T> {
    fn drop(&mut self) {
        let ptr = self.inner.as_ptr();
        unsafe { (*ptr).refcount -= 1 };
        if unsafe { (*ptr).refcount } == 0 {
            drop(unsafe { Box::from_raw(ptr) });
        }
    }
}