128 KiB
% Rust Reference Manual
Introduction
This document is the reference manual for the Rust programming language. It provides three kinds of material:
- Chapters that formally define the language grammar and, for each construct, informally describe its semantics and give examples of its use.
- Chapters that informally describe the memory model, concurrency model, runtime services, linkage model and debugging facilities.
- Appendix chapters providing rationale and references to languages that influenced the design.
This document does not serve as a tutorial introduction to the language. Background familiarity with the language is assumed. A separate tutorial document is available to help acquire such background familiarity.
This document also does not serve as a reference to the standard or extra libraries included in the language distribution. Those libraries are documented separately by extracting documentation attributes from their source code.
Disclaimer
Rust is a work in progress. The language continues to evolve as the design shifts and is fleshed out in working code. Certain parts work, certain parts do not, certain parts will be removed or changed.
This manual is a snapshot written in the present tense. All features described exist in working code unless otherwise noted, but some are quite primitive or remain to be further modified by planned work. Some may be temporary. It is a draft, and we ask that you not take anything you read here as final.
If you have suggestions to make, please try to focus them on reductions to the language: possible features that can be combined or omitted. We aim to keep the size and complexity of the language under control.
Note: The grammar for Rust given in this document is rough and very incomplete; only a modest number of sections have accompanying grammar rules. Formalizing the grammar accepted by the Rust parser is ongoing work, but future versions of this document will contain a complete grammar. Moreover, we hope that this grammar will be extracted and verified as LL(1) by an automated grammar-analysis tool, and further tested against the Rust sources. Preliminary versions of this automation exist, but are not yet complete.
Notation
Rust's grammar is defined over Unicode codepoints, each conventionally
denoted U+XXXX
, for 4 or more hexadecimal digits X
. Most of Rust's
grammar is confined to the ASCII range of Unicode, and is described in this
document by a dialect of Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF), specifically a
dialect of EBNF supported by common automated LL(k) parsing tools such as
llgen
, rather than the dialect given in ISO 14977. The dialect can be
defined self-referentially as follows:
grammar : rule + ;
rule : nonterminal ':' productionrule ';' ;
productionrule : production [ '|' production ] * ;
production : term * ;
term : element repeats ;
element : LITERAL | IDENTIFIER | '[' productionrule ']' ;
repeats : [ '*' | '+' ] NUMBER ? | NUMBER ? | '?' ;
Where:
- Whitespace in the grammar is ignored.
- Square brackets are used to group rules.
LITERAL
is a single printable ASCII character, or an escaped hexadecimal ASCII code of the form\xQQ
, in single quotes, denoting the corresponding Unicode codepointU+00QQ
.IDENTIFIER
is a nonempty string of ASCII letters and underscores.- The
repeat
forms apply to the adjacentelement
, and are as follows:?
means zero or one repetition*
means zero or more repetitions+
means one or more repetitions- NUMBER trailing a repeat symbol gives a maximum repetition count
- NUMBER on its own gives an exact repetition count
This EBNF dialect should hopefully be familiar to many readers.
Unicode productions
A few productions in Rust's grammar permit Unicode codepoints outside the ASCII range. We define these productions in terms of character properties specified in the Unicode standard, rather than in terms of ASCII-range codepoints. The section Special Unicode Productions lists these productions.
String table productions
Some rules in the grammar -- notably unary operators, binary operators, and keywords -- are given in a simplified form: as a listing of a table of unquoted, printable whitespace-separated strings. These cases form a subset of the rules regarding the token rule, and are assumed to be the result of a lexical-analysis phase feeding the parser, driven by a DFA, operating over the disjunction of all such string table entries.
When such a string enclosed in double-quotes ("
) occurs inside the
grammar, it is an implicit reference to a single member of such a string table
production. See tokens for more information.
Lexical structure
Input format
Rust input is interpreted as a sequence of Unicode codepoints encoded in UTF-8, normalized to Unicode normalization form NFKC. Most Rust grammar rules are defined in terms of printable ASCII-range codepoints, but a small number are defined in terms of Unicode properties or explicit codepoint lists. ^[Substitute definitions for the special Unicode productions are provided to the grammar verifier, restricted to ASCII range, when verifying the grammar in this document.]
Special Unicode Productions
The following productions in the Rust grammar are defined in terms of Unicode properties:
ident
, non_null
, non_star
, non_eol
, non_slash_or_star
, non_single_quote
and non_double_quote
.
Identifiers
The ident
production is any nonempty Unicode string of the following form:
- The first character has property
XID_start
- The remaining characters have property
XID_continue
that does not occur in the set of keywords.
Note: XID_start
and XID_continue
as character properties cover the
character ranges used to form the more familiar C and Java language-family
identifiers.
Delimiter-restricted productions
Some productions are defined by exclusion of particular Unicode characters:
non_null
is any single Unicode character aside fromU+0000
(null)non_eol
isnon_null
restricted to excludeU+000A
('\n'
)non_star
isnon_null
restricted to excludeU+002A
(*
)non_slash_or_star
isnon_null
restricted to excludeU+002F
(/
) andU+002A
(*
)non_single_quote
isnon_null
restricted to excludeU+0027
('
)non_double_quote
isnon_null
restricted to excludeU+0022
("
)
Comments
comment : block_comment | line_comment ;
block_comment : "/*" block_comment_body * '*' + '/' ;
block_comment_body : non_star * | '*' + non_slash_or_star ;
line_comment : "//" non_eol * ;
Comments in Rust code follow the general C++ style of line and block-comment forms, with no nesting of block-comment delimiters.
Line comments beginning with three slashes (///
),
and block comments beginning with a repeated asterisk in the block-open sequence (/**
),
are interpreted as a special syntax for doc
attributes.
That is, they are equivalent to writing #[doc "..."]
around the comment's text.
Non-doc comments are interpreted as a form of whitespace.
Whitespace
whitespace_char : '\x20' | '\x09' | '\x0a' | '\x0d' ;
whitespace : [ whitespace_char | comment ] + ;
The whitespace_char
production is any nonempty Unicode string consisting of any
of the following Unicode characters: U+0020
(space, ' '
), U+0009
(tab,
'\t'
), U+000A
(LF, '\n'
), U+000D
(CR, '\r'
).
Rust is a "free-form" language, meaning that all forms of whitespace serve only to separate tokens in the grammar, and have no semantic significance.
A Rust program has identical meaning if each whitespace element is replaced with any other legal whitespace element, such as a single space character.
Tokens
simple_token : keyword | unop | binop ;
token : simple_token | ident | literal | symbol | whitespace token ;
Tokens are primitive productions in the grammar defined by regular (non-recursive) languages. "Simple" tokens are given in string table production form, and occur in the rest of the grammar as double-quoted strings. Other tokens have exact rules given.
Keywords
The keywords are the following strings:
as
break
do
else enum extern
false fn for
if impl in
let loop
match mod mut
priv pub
ref return
self static struct super
true trait type
unsafe use
while
Each of these keywords has special meaning in its grammar,
and all of them are excluded from the ident
rule.
Literals
A literal is an expression consisting of a single token, rather than a sequence of tokens, that immediately and directly denotes the value it evaluates to, rather than referring to it by name or some other evaluation rule. A literal is a form of constant expression, so is evaluated (primarily) at compile time.
literal : string_lit | char_lit | num_lit ;
Character and string literals
char_lit : '\x27' char_body '\x27' ;
string_lit : '"' string_body * '"' ;
char_body : non_single_quote
| '\x5c' [ '\x27' | common_escape ] ;
string_body : non_double_quote
| '\x5c' [ '\x22' | common_escape ] ;
common_escape : '\x5c'
| 'n' | 'r' | 't' | '0'
| 'x' hex_digit 2
| 'u' hex_digit 4
| 'U' hex_digit 8 ;
hex_digit : 'a' | 'b' | 'c' | 'd' | 'e' | 'f'
| 'A' | 'B' | 'C' | 'D' | 'E' | 'F'
| dec_digit ;
dec_digit : '0' | nonzero_dec ;
nonzero_dec: '1' | '2' | '3' | '4'
| '5' | '6' | '7' | '8' | '9' ;
A character literal is a single Unicode character enclosed within two
U+0027
(single-quote) characters, with the exception of U+0027
itself,
which must be escaped by a preceding U+005C character (\
).
A string literal is a sequence of any Unicode characters enclosed within
two U+0022
(double-quote) characters, with the exception of U+0022
itself, which must be escaped by a preceding U+005C
character (\
).
Some additional escapes are available in either character or string
literals. An escape starts with a U+005C
(\
) and continues with one of
the following forms:
- An 8-bit codepoint escape escape starts with
U+0078
(x
) and is followed by exactly two hex digits. It denotes the Unicode codepoint equal to the provided hex value. - A 16-bit codepoint escape starts with
U+0075
(u
) and is followed by exactly four hex digits. It denotes the Unicode codepoint equal to the provided hex value. - A 32-bit codepoint escape starts with
U+0055
(U
) and is followed by exactly eight hex digits. It denotes the Unicode codepoint equal to the provided hex value. - A whitespace escape is one of the characters
U+006E
(n
),U+0072
(r
), orU+0074
(t
), denoting the unicode valuesU+000A
(LF),U+000D
(CR) orU+0009
(HT) respectively. - The backslash escape is the character U+005C (
\
) which must be escaped in order to denote itself.
Number literals
num_lit : nonzero_dec [ dec_digit | '_' ] * num_suffix ?
| '0' [ [ dec_digit | '_' ] + num_suffix ?
| 'b' [ '1' | '0' | '_' ] + int_suffix ?
| 'x' [ hex_digit | '_' ] + int_suffix ? ] ;
num_suffix : int_suffix | float_suffix ;
int_suffix : 'u' int_suffix_size ?
| 'i' int_suffix_size ? ;
int_suffix_size : [ '8' | '1' '6' | '3' '2' | '6' '4' ] ;
float_suffix : [ exponent | '.' dec_lit exponent ? ] ? float_suffix_ty ? ;
float_suffix_ty : 'f' [ '3' '2' | '6' '4' ] ;
exponent : ['E' | 'e'] ['-' | '+' ] ? dec_lit ;
dec_lit : [ dec_digit | '_' ] + ;
A number literal is either an integer literal or a floating-point literal. The grammar for recognizing the two kinds of literals is mixed, as they are differentiated by suffixes.
Integer literals
An integer literal has one of three forms:
- A decimal literal starts with a decimal digit and continues with any mixture of decimal digits and underscores.
- A hex literal starts with the character sequence
U+0030
U+0078
(0x
) and continues as any mixture hex digits and underscores. - A binary literal starts with the character sequence
U+0030
U+0062
(0b
) and continues as any mixture binary digits and underscores.
An integer literal may be followed (immediately, without any spaces) by an integer suffix, which changes the type of the literal. There are two kinds of integer literal suffix:
- The
i
andu
suffixes give the literal typeint
oruint
, respectively. - Each of the signed and unsigned machine types
u8
,i8
,u16
,i16
,u32
,i32
,u64
andi64
give the literal the corresponding machine type.
The type of an unsuffixed integer literal is determined by type inference.
If a integer type can be uniquely determined from the surrounding program
context, the unsuffixed integer literal has that type. If the program context
underconstrains the type, the unsuffixed integer literal's type is int
; if
the program context overconstrains the type, it is considered a static type
error.
Examples of integer literals of various forms:
123; 0xff00; // type determined by program context
// defaults to int in absence of type
// information
123u; // type uint
123_u; // type uint
0xff_u8; // type u8
0b1111_1111_1001_0000_i32; // type i32
Floating-point literals
A floating-point literal has one of two forms:
- Two decimal literals separated by a period
character
U+002E
(.
), with an optional exponent trailing after the second decimal literal. - A single decimal literal followed by an exponent.
By default, a floating-point literal is of type float
. A
floating-point literal may be followed (immediately, without any
spaces) by a floating-point suffix, which changes the type of the
literal. There are three floating-point suffixes: f
(for the base
float
type), f32
, and f64
(the 32-bit and 64-bit floating point
types).
Examples of floating-point literals of various forms:
123.0; // type float
0.1; // type float
3f; // type float
0.1f32; // type f32
12E+99_f64; // type f64
Unit and boolean literals
The unit value, the only value of the type that has the same name, is written as ()
.
The two values of the boolean type are written true
and false
.
Symbols
symbol : "::" "->"
| '#' | '[' | ']' | '(' | ')' | '{' | '}'
| ',' | ';' ;
Symbols are a general class of printable token that play structural roles in a variety of grammar productions. They are catalogued here for completeness as the set of remaining miscellaneous printable tokens that do not otherwise appear as unary operators, binary operators, or keywords.
Paths
expr_path : ident [ "::" expr_path_tail ] + ;
expr_path_tail : '<' type_expr [ ',' type_expr ] + '>'
| expr_path ;
type_path : ident [ type_path_tail ] + ;
type_path_tail : '<' type_expr [ ',' type_expr ] + '>'
| "::" type_path ;
A path is a sequence of one or more path components logically separated by
a namespace qualifier (::
). If a path consists of only one component, it may
refer to either an item or a slot in a local
control scope. If a path has multiple components, it refers to an item.
Every item has a canonical path within its crate, but the path naming an item is only meaningful within a given crate. There is no global namespace across crates; an item's canonical path merely identifies it within the crate.
Two examples of simple paths consisting of only identifier components:
x;
x::y::z;
Path components are usually identifiers, but the trailing
component of a path may be an angle-bracket-enclosed list of type
arguments. In expression context, the type argument list is
given after a final (::
) namespace qualifier in order to disambiguate it
from a relational expression involving the less-than symbol (<
). In type
expression context, the final namespace qualifier is omitted.
Two examples of paths with type arguments:
# use std::hashmap::HashMap;
# fn f() {
# fn id<T>(t: T) -> T { t }
type t = HashMap<int,~str>; // Type arguments used in a type expression
let x = id::<int>(10); // Type arguments used in a call expression
# }
Syntax extensions
A number of minor features of Rust are not central enough to have their own
syntax, and yet are not implementable as functions. Instead, they are given
names, and invoked through a consistent syntax: name!(...)
. Examples
include:
fmt!
: format data into a stringenv!
: look up an environment variable's value at compile timestringify!
: pretty-print the Rust expression given as an argumentproto!
: define a protocol for inter-task communicationinclude!
: include the Rust expression in the given fileinclude_str!
: include the contents of the given file as a stringinclude_bin!
: include the contents of the given file as a binary bloberror!
,warn!
,info!
,debug!
: provide diagnostic information.
All of the above extensions, with the exception of proto!
, are expressions
with values. proto!
is an item, defining a new name.
Macros
expr_macro_rules : "macro_rules" '!' ident '(' macro_rule * ')'
macro_rule : '(' matcher * ')' "=>" '(' transcriber * ')' ';'
matcher : '(' matcher * ')' | '[' matcher * ']'
| '{' matcher * '}' | '$' ident ':' ident
| '$' '(' matcher * ')' sep_token? [ '*' | '+' ]
| non_special_token
transcriber : '(' transcriber * ')' | '[' transcriber * ']'
| '{' transcriber * '}' | '$' ident
| '$' '(' transcriber * ')' sep_token? [ '*' | '+' ]
| non_special_token
User-defined syntax extensions are called "macros",
and the macro_rules
syntax extension defines them.
Currently, user-defined macros can expand to expressions, statements, or items.
(A sep_token
is any token other than *
and +
.
A non_special_token
is any token other than a delimiter or $
.)
The macro expander looks up macro invocations by name, and tries each macro rule in turn. It transcribes the first successful match. Matching and transcription are closely related to each other, and we will describe them together.
Macro By Example
The macro expander matches and transcribes every token that does not begin with a $
literally, including delimiters.
For parsing reasons, delimiters must be balanced, but they are otherwise not special.
In the matcher, $
name :
designator matches the nonterminal in the
Rust syntax named by designator. Valid designators are item
, block
,
stmt
, pat
, expr
, ty
(type), ident
, path
, matchers
(lhs of the =>
in macro rules),
tt
(rhs of the =>
in macro rules). In the transcriber, the designator is already known, and so only
the name of a matched nonterminal comes after the dollar sign.
In both the matcher and transcriber, the Kleene star-like operator indicates repetition.
The Kleene star operator consists of $
and parens, optionally followed by a separator token, followed by *
or +
.
*
means zero or more repetitions, +
means at least one repetition.
The parens are not matched or transcribed.
On the matcher side, a name is bound to all of the names it
matches, in a structure that mimics the structure of the repetition
encountered on a successful match. The job of the transcriber is to sort that
structure out.
The rules for transcription of these repetitions are called "Macro By Example".
Essentially, one "layer" of repetition is discharged at a time, and all of
them must be discharged by the time a name is transcribed. Therefore,
( $( $i:ident ),* ) => ( $i )
is an invalid macro, but
( $( $i:ident ),* ) => ( $( $i:ident ),* )
is acceptable (if trivial).
When Macro By Example encounters a repetition, it examines all of the $
name s that occur in its body. At the "current layer", they all must repeat
the same number of times, so
( $( $i:ident ),* ; $( $j:ident ),* ) => ( $( ($i,$j) ),* )
is valid if
given the argument (a,b,c ; d,e,f)
, but not (a,b,c ; d,e)
. The repetition
walks through the choices at that layer in lockstep, so the former input
transcribes to ( (a,d), (b,e), (c,f) )
.
Nested repetitions are allowed.
Parsing limitations
The parser used by the macro system is reasonably powerful, but the parsing of Rust syntax is restricted in two ways:
- The parser will always parse as much as possible. If it attempts to match
$i:expr [ , ]
against8 [ , ]
, it will attempt to parsei
as an array index operation and fail. Adding a separator can solve this problem. - The parser must have eliminated all ambiguity by the time it reaches a
$
name:
designator. This requirement most often affects name-designator pairs when they occur at the beginning of, or immediately after, a$(...)*
; requiring a distinctive token in front can solve the problem.
Syntax extensions useful for the macro author
log_syntax!
: print out the arguments at compile timetrace_macros!
: supplytrue
orfalse
to enable or disable macro expansion loggingstringify!
: turn the identifier argument into a string literalconcat_idents!
: create a new identifier by concatenating the arguments
Crates and source files
Rust is a compiled language. Its semantics obey a phase distinction between compile-time and run-time. Those semantic rules that have a static interpretation govern the success or failure of compilation. We refer to these rules as "static semantics". Semantic rules called "dynamic semantics" govern the behavior of programs at run-time. A program that fails to compile due to violation of a compile-time rule has no defined dynamic semantics; the compiler should halt with an error report, and produce no executable artifact.
The compilation model centres on artifacts called crates. Each compilation processes a single crate in source form, and if successful, produces a single crate in binary form: either an executable or a library.^[A crate is somewhat analogous to an assembly in the ECMA-335 CLI model, a library in the SML/NJ Compilation Manager, a unit in the Owens and Flatt module system, or a configuration in Mesa.]
A crate is a unit of compilation and linking, as well as versioning, distribution and runtime loading. A crate contains a tree of nested module scopes. The top level of this tree is a module that is anonymous (from the point of view of paths within the module) and any item within a crate has a canonical module path denoting its location within the crate's module tree.
The Rust compiler is always invoked with a single source file as input, and always produces a single output crate.
The processing of that source file may result in other source files being loaded as modules.
Source files have the extension .rs
.
A Rust source file describes a module, the name and
location of which -- in the module tree of the current crate -- are defined
from outside the source file: either by an explicit mod_item
in
a referencing source file, or by the name of the crate itself.
Each source file contains a sequence of zero or more item
definitions,
and may optionally begin with any number of attributes
that apply to the containing module.
Attributes on the anonymous crate module define important metadata that influences
the behavior of the compiler.
// Linkage attributes
#[ link(name = "projx",
vers = "2.5",
uuid = "9cccc5d5-aceb-4af5-8285-811211826b82") ];
// Additional metadata attributes
#[ desc = "Project X" ];
#[ license = "BSD" ];
#[ author = "Jane Doe" ];
// Specify the output type
#[ crate_type = "lib" ];
// Turn on a warning
#[ warn(non_camel_case_types) ];
A crate that contains a main
function can be compiled to an executable.
If a main
function is present, its return type must be unit
and it must take no arguments.
Items and attributes
Crates contain items, each of which may have some number of attributes attached to it.
Items
item : mod_item | fn_item | type_item | struct_item | enum_item
| static_item | trait_item | impl_item | extern_block ;
An item is a component of a crate; some module items can be defined in crate files, but most are defined in source files. Items are organized within a crate by a nested set of modules. Every crate has a single "outermost" anonymous module; all further items within the crate have paths within the module tree of the crate.
Items are entirely determined at compile-time, generally remain fixed during execution, and may reside in read-only memory.
There are several kinds of item:
Some items form an implicit scope for the declaration of sub-items. In other words, within a function or module, declarations of items can (in many cases) be mixed with the statements, control blocks, and similar artifacts that otherwise compose the item body. The meaning of these scoped items is the same as if the item was declared outside the scope -- it is still a static item -- except that the item's path name within the module namespace is qualified by the name of the enclosing item, or is private to the enclosing item (in the case of functions). The grammar specifies the exact locations in which sub-item declarations may appear.
Type Parameters
All items except modules may be parameterized by type. Type parameters are
given as a comma-separated list of identifiers enclosed in angle brackets
(<...>
), after the name of the item and before its definition.
The type parameters of an item are considered "part of the name", not part of the type of the item.
A referencing path must (in principle) provide type arguments as a list of comma-separated types enclosed within angle brackets, in order to refer to the type-parameterized item.
In practice, the type-inference system can usually infer such argument types from context.
There are no general type-parametric types, only type-parametric items.
That is, Rust has no notion of type abstraction: there are no first-class "forall" types.
Modules
mod_item : "mod" ident ( ';' | '{' mod '}' );
mod : [ view_item | item ] * ;
A module is a container for zero or more view items and zero or more items. The view items manage the visibility of the items defined within the module, as well as the visibility of names from outside the module when referenced from inside the module.
A module item is a module, surrounded in braces, named, and prefixed with
the keyword mod
. A module item introduces a new, named module into the tree
of modules making up a crate. Modules can nest arbitrarily.
An example of a module:
mod math {
type complex = (f64, f64);
fn sin(f: f64) -> f64 {
...
# fail!();
}
fn cos(f: f64) -> f64 {
...
# fail!();
}
fn tan(f: f64) -> f64 {
...
# fail!();
}
}
Modules and types share the same namespace. Declaring a named type that has the same name as a module in scope is forbidden: that is, a type definition, trait, struct, enumeration, or type parameter can't shadow the name of a module in scope, or vice versa.
A module without a body is loaded from an external file, by default with the same
name as the module, plus the .rs
extension.
When a nested submodule is loaded from an external file,
it is loaded from a subdirectory path that mirrors the module hierarchy.
// Load the `vec` module from `vec.rs`
mod vec;
mod task {
// Load the `local_data` module from `task/local_data.rs`
mod local_data;
}
The directories and files used for loading external file modules can be influenced
with the path
attribute.
#[path = "task_files"]
mod task {
// Load the `local_data` module from `task_files/tls.rs`
#[path = "tls.rs"]
mod local_data;
}
View items
view_item : extern_mod_decl | use_decl ;
A view item manages the namespace of a module. View items do not define new items, but rather, simply change other items' visibility. There are several kinds of view item:
Extern mod declarations
extern_mod_decl : "extern" "mod" ident [ '(' link_attrs ')' ] ? [ '=' string_lit ] ? ;
link_attrs : link_attr [ ',' link_attrs ] + ;
link_attr : ident '=' literal ;
An extern mod
declaration specifies a dependency on an external crate.
The external crate is then bound into the declaring scope
as the ident
provided in the extern_mod_decl
.
The external crate is resolved to a specific soname
at compile time,
and a runtime linkage requirement to that soname
is passed to the linker for
loading at runtime.
The soname
is resolved at compile time by scanning the compiler's library path
and matching the link_attrs
provided in the use_decl
against any #link
attributes that
were declared on the external crate when it was compiled.
If no link_attrs
are provided,
a default name
attribute is assumed,
equal to the ident
given in the use_decl
.
Optionally, an identifier in an extern mod
declaration may be followed by an equals sign,
then a string literal denoting a relative path on the filesystem.
This path should exist in one of the directories in the Rust path,
which by default contains the .rust
subdirectory of the current directory and each of its parents,
as well as any directories in the colon-separated (or semicolon-separated on Windows)
list of paths that is the RUST_PATH
environment variable.
The meaning of extern mod a = "b/c/d";
, supposing that /a
is in the RUST_PATH,
is that the name a
should be taken as a reference to the crate whose absolute location is
/a/b/c/d
.
Four examples of extern mod
declarations:
extern mod pcre (uuid = "54aba0f8-a7b1-4beb-92f1-4cf625264841");
extern mod extra; // equivalent to: extern mod extra ( name = "extra" );
extern mod rustextra (name = "extra"); // linking to 'extra' under another name
extern mod complicated_mod = "some-file/in/the-rust/path";
Use declarations
use_decl : "pub" ? "use" ident [ '=' path
| "::" path_glob ] ;
path_glob : ident [ "::" path_glob ] ?
| '*'
| '{' ident [ ',' ident ] * '}'
A use declaration creates one or more local name bindings synonymous
with some other path.
Usually a use
declaration is used to shorten the path required to refer to a module item.
Note: Unlike in many languages,
use
declarations in Rust do not declare linkage dependency with external crates.
Rather, extern mod
declarations declare linkage dependencies.
Use declarations support a number of convenient shortcuts:
- Rebinding the target name as a new local name, using the syntax
use x = p::q::r;
. - Simultaneously binding a list of paths differing only in their final element,
using the glob-like brace syntax
use a::b::{c,d,e,f};
- Binding all paths matching a given prefix, using the asterisk wildcard syntax
use a::b::*;
An example of use
declarations:
use std::num::sin;
use std::option::{Some, None};
fn main() {
// Equivalent to 'info!(std::num::sin(1.0));'
info!(sin(1.0));
// Equivalent to 'info!(~[std::option::Some(1.0), std::option::None]);'
info!(~[Some(1.0), None]);
}
Like items, use
declarations are private to the containing module, by default.
Also like items, a use
declaration can be public, if qualified by the pub
keyword.
Such a use
declaration serves to re-export a name.
A public use
declaration can therefore redirect some public name to a different target definition:
even a definition with a private canonical path, inside a different module.
If a sequence of such redirections form a cycle or cannot be resolved unambiguously,
they represent a compile-time error.
An example of re-exporting:
# fn main() { }
mod quux {
pub use quux::foo::*;
pub mod foo {
pub fn bar() { }
pub fn baz() { }
}
}
In this example, the module quux
re-exports all of the public names defined in foo
.
Also note that the paths contained in use
items are relative to the crate root.
So, in the previous example, the use
refers to quux::foo::*
, and not simply to foo::*
.
This also means that top-level module declarations should be at the crate root if direct usage
of the declared modules within use
items is desired. It is also possible to use self
and super
at the beginning of a use
item to refer to the current and direct parent modules respectively.
All rules regarding accessing declared modules in use
declarations applies to both module declarations
and extern mod
declarations.
An example of what will and will not work for use
items:
# #[allow(unused_imports)];
use foo::extra; // good: foo is at the root of the crate
use foo::baz::foobaz; // good: foo is at the root of the crate
mod foo {
extern mod extra;
use foo::extra::list; // good: foo is at crate root
// use extra::*; // bad: extra is not at the crate root
use self::baz::foobaz; // good: self refers to module 'foo'
use foo::bar::foobar; // good: foo is at crate root
pub mod bar {
pub fn foobar() { }
}
pub mod baz {
use super::bar::foobar; // good: super refers to module 'foo'
pub fn foobaz() { }
}
}
fn main() {}
Functions
A function item defines a sequence of statements and an optional final expression, along with a name and a set of parameters.
Functions are declared with the keyword fn
.
Functions declare a set of input slots as parameters, through which the caller passes arguments into the function, and an output slot through which the function passes results back to the caller.
A function may also be copied into a first class value, in which case the value has the corresponding function type, and can be used otherwise exactly as a function item (with a minor additional cost of calling the function indirectly).
Every control path in a function logically ends with a return
expression or a
diverging expression. If the outermost block of a function has a
value-producing expression in its final-expression position, that expression
is interpreted as an implicit return
expression applied to the
final-expression.
An example of a function:
fn add(x: int, y: int) -> int {
return x + y;
}
As with let
bindings, function arguments are irrefutable patterns,
so any pattern that is valid in a let binding is also valid as an argument.
fn first((value, _): (int, int)) -> int { value }
Generic functions
A generic function allows one or more parameterized types to appear in its signature. Each type parameter must be explicitly declared, in an angle-bracket-enclosed, comma-separated list following the function name.
fn iter<T>(seq: &[T], f: &fn(T)) {
for elt in seq.iter() { f(elt); }
}
fn map<T, U>(seq: &[T], f: &fn(T) -> U) -> ~[U] {
let mut acc = ~[];
for elt in seq.iter() { acc.push(f(elt)); }
acc
}
Inside the function signature and body, the name of the type parameter can be used as a type name.
When a generic function is referenced, its type is instantiated based
on the context of the reference. For example, calling the iter
function defined above on [1, 2]
will instantiate type parameter T
with int
, and require the closure parameter to have type
fn(int)
.
The type parameters can also be explicitly supplied in a trailing
path component after the function name. This might be necessary
if there is not sufficient context to determine the type parameters. For
example, sys::size_of::<u32>() == 4
.
Since a parameter type is opaque to the generic function, the set of operations that can be performed on it is limited. Values of parameter type can only be moved, not copied.
fn id<T>(x: T) -> T { x }
Similarly, trait bounds can be specified for type parameters to allow methods with that trait to be called on values of that type.
Unsafety
Unsafe operations are those that potentially violate the memory-safety guarantees of Rust's static semantics.
The following language level features cannot be used in the safe subset of Rust:
- Dereferencing a raw pointer.
- Calling an unsafe function (including an intrinsic or foreign function).
Unsafe functions
Unsafe functions are functions that are not safe in all contexts and/or for all possible inputs.
Such a function must be prefixed with the keyword unsafe
.
Unsafe blocks
A block of code can also be prefixed with the unsafe
keyword, to permit calling unsafe
functions
or dereferencing raw pointers within a safe function.
When a programmer has sufficient conviction that a sequence of potentially unsafe operations is
actually safe, they can encapsulate that sequence (taken as a whole) within an unsafe
block. The
compiler will consider uses of such code safe, in the surrounding context.
Unsafe blocks are used to wrap foreign libraries, make direct use of hardware or implement features not directly present in the language. For example, Rust provides the language features necessary to implement memory-safe concurrency in the language but the implementation of tasks and message passing is in the standard library.
Rust's type system is a conservative approximation of the dynamic safety requirements, so in some
cases there is a performance cost to using safe code. For example, a doubly-linked list is not a
tree structure and can only be represented with managed or reference-counted pointers in safe code.
By using unsafe
blocks to represent the reverse links as raw pointers, it can be implemented with
only owned pointers.
Behavior considered unsafe
This is a list of behavior which is forbidden in all Rust code. Type checking provides the guarantee
that these issues are never caused by safe code. An unsafe
block or function is responsible for
never invoking this behaviour or exposing an API making it possible for it to occur in safe code.
- Data races
- Dereferencing a null/dangling raw pointer
- Mutating an immutable value/reference, if it is not marked as non-
Freeze
- Reads of undef (uninitialized) memory
- Breaking the pointer aliasing rules with raw pointers (a subset of the rules used by C)
- Invoking undefined behavior via compiler intrinsics:
- Indexing outside of the bounds of an object with
std::ptr::offset
(offset
intrinsic), with the exception of one byte past the end which is permitted. - Using
std::ptr::copy_nonoverlapping_memory
(memcpy32
/memcpy64
instrinsics) on overlapping buffers
- Indexing outside of the bounds of an object with
- Invalid values in primitive types, even in private fields/locals:
- Dangling/null pointers in non-raw pointers, or slices
- A value other than
false
(0) ortrue
(1) in abool
- A discriminant in an
enum
not included in the type definition - A value in a
char
which is a surrogate or abovechar::MAX
- non-UTF-8 byte sequences in a
str
Behaviour not considered unsafe
This is a list of behaviour not considered unsafe in Rust terms, but that may be undesired.
- Deadlocks
- Reading data from private fields (
std::repr
,format!("{:?}", x)
) - Leaks due to reference count cycles, even in the global heap
- Exiting without calling destructors
- Sending signals
- Accessing/modifying the file system
- Unsigned integer overflow (well-defined as wrapping)
- Signed integer overflow (well-defined as two's complement representation wrapping)
Diverging functions
A special kind of function can be declared with a !
character where the
output slot type would normally be. For example:
fn my_err(s: &str) -> ! {
info!(s);
fail!();
}
We call such functions "diverging" because they never return a value to the
caller. Every control path in a diverging function must end with a
fail!()
or a call to another diverging function on every
control path. The !
annotation does not denote a type. Rather, the result
type of a diverging function is a special type called \bot
("bottom") that
unifies with any type. Rust has no syntax for \bot
.
It might be necessary to declare a diverging function because as mentioned
previously, the typechecker checks that every control path in a function ends
with a return
or diverging expression. So, if my_err
were declared without the !
annotation, the following code would not
typecheck:
# fn my_err(s: &str) -> ! { fail!() }
fn f(i: int) -> int {
if i == 42 {
return 42;
}
else {
my_err("Bad number!");
}
}
This will not compile without the !
annotation on my_err
,
since the else
branch of the conditional in f
does not return an int
,
as required by the signature of f
.
Adding the !
annotation to my_err
informs the typechecker that,
should control ever enter my_err
, no further type judgments about f
need to hold,
since control will never resume in any context that relies on those judgments.
Thus the return type on f
only needs to reflect the if
branch of the conditional.
Extern functions
Extern functions are part of Rust's foreign function interface,
providing the opposite functionality to external blocks.
Whereas external blocks allow Rust code to call foreign code,
extern functions with bodies defined in Rust code can be called by foreign
code. They are defined in the same way as any other Rust function,
except that they have the extern
modifier.
// Declares an extern fn, the ABI defaults to "C"
extern fn new_vec() -> ~[int] { ~[] }
// Declares an extern fn with "stdcall" ABI
extern "stdcall" fn new_vec_stdcall() -> ~[int] { ~[] }
Unlike normal functions, extern fns have an extern "ABI" fn()
.
This is the same type as the functions declared in an extern
block.
# extern fn new_vec() -> ~[int] { ~[] }
let fptr: extern "C" fn() -> ~[int] = new_vec;
Extern functions may be called from Rust code, but caution must be taken with respect to the size of the stack segment, just as when calling an extern function normally.
Type definitions
A type definition defines a new name for an existing type. Type
definitions are declared with the keyword type
. Every value has a single,
specific type; the type-specified aspects of a value include:
- Whether the value is composed of sub-values or is indivisible.
- Whether the value represents textual or numerical information.
- Whether the value represents integral or floating-point information.
- The sequence of memory operations required to access the value.
- The kind of the type.
For example, the type (u8, u8)
defines the set of immutable values that are composite pairs,
each containing two unsigned 8-bit integers accessed by pattern-matching and laid out in memory with the x
component preceding the y
component.
Structures
A structure is a nominal structure type defined with the keyword struct
.
An example of a struct
item and its use:
struct Point {x: int, y: int}
let p = Point {x: 10, y: 11};
let px: int = p.x;
A tuple structure is a nominal tuple type, also defined with the keyword struct
.
For example:
struct Point(int, int);
let p = Point(10, 11);
let px: int = match p { Point(x, _) => x };
A unit-like struct is a structure without any fields, defined by leaving off the list of fields entirely.
Such types will have a single value, just like the unit value ()
of the unit type.
For example:
struct Cookie;
let c = [Cookie, Cookie, Cookie, Cookie];
Enumerations
An enumeration is a simultaneous definition of a nominal enumerated type as well as a set of constructors, that can be used to create or pattern-match values of the corresponding enumerated type.
Enumerations are declared with the keyword enum
.
An example of an enum
item and its use:
enum Animal {
Dog,
Cat
}
let mut a: Animal = Dog;
a = Cat;
Enumeration constructors can have either named or unnamed fields:
enum Animal {
Dog (~str, float),
Cat { name: ~str, weight: float }
}
let mut a: Animal = Dog(~"Cocoa", 37.2);
a = Cat{ name: ~"Spotty", weight: 2.7 };
In this example, Cat
is a struct-like enum variant,
whereas Dog
is simply called an enum variant.
Static items
static_item : "static" ident ':' type '=' expr ';' ;
A static item is a named constant value stored in the global data section of a crate.
Immutable static items are stored in the read-only data section.
The constant value bound to a static item is, like all constant values, evaluated at compile time.
Static items have the static
lifetime, which outlives all other lifetimes in a Rust program.
Static items are declared with the static
keyword.
A static item must have a constant expression giving its definition.
Static items must be explicitly typed.
The type may be bool
, char
, a number, or a type derived from those primitive types.
The derived types are borrowed pointers with the 'static
lifetime,
fixed-size arrays, tuples, and structs.
static BIT1: uint = 1 << 0;
static BIT2: uint = 1 << 1;
static BITS: [uint, ..2] = [BIT1, BIT2];
static STRING: &'static str = "bitstring";
struct BitsNStrings<'self> {
mybits: [uint, ..2],
mystring: &'self str
}
static bits_n_strings: BitsNStrings<'static> = BitsNStrings {
mybits: BITS,
mystring: STRING
};
Mutable statics
If a static item is declared with the mut
keyword, then it is allowed to
be modified by the program. One of Rust's goals is to make concurrency bugs hard
to run into, and this is obviously a very large source of race conditions or
other bugs. For this reason, an unsafe
block is required when either
reading or writing a mutable static variable. Care should be taken to ensure
that modifications to a mutable static are safe with respect to other tasks
running in the same process.
Mutable statics are still very useful, however. They can be used with C
libraries and can also be bound from C libraries (in an extern
block).
# fn atomic_add(_: &mut uint, _: uint) -> uint { 2 }
static mut LEVELS: uint = 0;
// This violates the idea of no shared state, and this doesn't internally
// protect against races, so this function is `unsafe`
unsafe fn bump_levels_unsafe1() -> uint {
let ret = LEVELS;
LEVELS += 1;
return ret;
}
// Assuming that we have an atomic_add function which returns the old value,
// this function is "safe" but the meaning of the return value may not be what
// callers expect, so it's still marked as `unsafe`
unsafe fn bump_levels_unsafe2() -> uint {
return atomic_add(&mut LEVELS, 1);
}
Traits
A trait describes a set of method types.
Traits can include default implementations of methods,
written in terms of some unknown self
type;
the self
type may either be completely unspecified,
or constrained by some other trait.
Traits are implemented for specific types through separate implementations.
# type Surface = int;
# type BoundingBox = int;
trait Shape {
fn draw(&self, Surface);
fn bounding_box(&self) -> BoundingBox;
}
This defines a trait with two methods.
All values that have implementations of this trait in scope can have their draw
and bounding_box
methods called,
using value.bounding_box()
syntax.
Type parameters can be specified for a trait to make it generic. These appear after the trait name, using the same syntax used in generic functions.
trait Seq<T> {
fn len(&self) -> uint;
fn elt_at(&self, n: uint) -> T;
fn iter(&self, &fn(T));
}
Generic functions may use traits as bounds on their type parameters. This will have two effects: only types that have the trait may instantiate the parameter, and within the generic function, the methods of the trait can be called on values that have the parameter's type. For example:
# type Surface = int;
# trait Shape { fn draw(&self, Surface); }
fn draw_twice<T: Shape>(surface: Surface, sh: T) {
sh.draw(surface);
sh.draw(surface);
}
Traits also define an object type with the same name as the trait. Values of this type are created by casting pointer values (pointing to a type for which an implementation of the given trait is in scope) to pointers to the trait name, used as a type.
# trait Shape { }
# impl Shape for int { }
# let mycircle = 0;
let myshape: @Shape = @mycircle as @Shape;
The resulting value is a managed box containing the value that was cast, along with information that identifies the methods of the implementation that was used. Values with a trait type can have methods called on them, for any method in the trait, and can be used to instantiate type parameters that are bounded by the trait.
Trait methods may be static,
which means that they lack a self
argument.
This means that they can only be called with function call syntax (f(x)
)
and not method call syntax (obj.f()
).
The way to refer to the name of a static method is to qualify it with the trait name,
treating the trait name like a module.
For example:
trait Num {
fn from_int(n: int) -> Self;
}
impl Num for float {
fn from_int(n: int) -> float { n as float }
}
let x: float = Num::from_int(42);
Traits may inherit from other traits. For example, in
trait Shape { fn area() -> float; }
trait Circle : Shape { fn radius() -> float; }
the syntax Circle : Shape
means that types that implement Circle
must also have an implementation for Shape
.
Multiple supertraits are separated by spaces, trait Circle : Shape Eq { }
.
In an implementation of Circle
for a given type T
, methods can refer to Shape
methods,
since the typechecker checks that any type with an implementation of Circle
also has an implementation of Shape
.
In type-parameterized functions,
methods of the supertrait may be called on values of subtrait-bound type parameters.
Referring to the previous example of trait Circle : Shape
:
# trait Shape { fn area(&self) -> float; }
# trait Circle : Shape { fn radius(&self) -> float; }
fn radius_times_area<T: Circle>(c: T) -> float {
// `c` is both a Circle and a Shape
c.radius() * c.area()
}
Likewise, supertrait methods may also be called on trait objects.
# trait Shape { fn area(&self) -> float; }
# trait Circle : Shape { fn radius(&self) -> float; }
# impl Shape for int { fn area(&self) -> float { 0.0 } }
# impl Circle for int { fn radius(&self) -> float { 0.0 } }
# let mycircle = 0;
let mycircle: Circle = @mycircle as @Circle;
let nonsense = mycircle.radius() * mycircle.area();
Implementations
An implementation is an item that implements a trait for a specific type.
Implementations are defined with the keyword impl
.
# struct Point {x: float, y: float};
# type Surface = int;
# struct BoundingBox {x: float, y: float, width: float, height: float};
# trait Shape { fn draw(&self, Surface); fn bounding_box(&self) -> BoundingBox; }
# fn do_draw_circle(s: Surface, c: Circle) { }
struct Circle {
radius: float,
center: Point,
}
impl Shape for Circle {
fn draw(&self, s: Surface) { do_draw_circle(s, *self); }
fn bounding_box(&self) -> BoundingBox {
let r = self.radius;
BoundingBox{x: self.center.x - r, y: self.center.y - r,
width: 2.0 * r, height: 2.0 * r}
}
}
It is possible to define an implementation without referring to a trait.
The methods in such an implementation can only be used
as direct calls on the values of the type that the implementation targets.
In such an implementation, the trait type and for
after impl
are omitted.
Such implementations are limited to nominal types (enums, structs),
and the implementation must appear in the same module or a sub-module as the self
type.
When a trait is specified in an impl
,
all methods declared as part of the trait must be implemented,
with matching types and type parameter counts.
An implementation can take type parameters,
which can be different from the type parameters taken by the trait it implements.
Implementation parameters are written after the impl
keyword.
# trait Seq<T> { }
impl<T> Seq<T> for ~[T] {
...
}
impl Seq<bool> for u32 {
/* Treat the integer as a sequence of bits */
}
External blocks
extern_block_item : "extern" '{' extern_block '} ;
extern_block : [ foreign_fn ] * ;
External blocks form the basis for Rust's foreign function interface. Declarations in an external block describe symbols in external, non-Rust libraries.
Functions within external blocks are declared in the same way as other Rust functions, with the exception that they may not have a body and are instead terminated by a semicolon.
# use std::libc::{c_char, FILE};
# #[nolink]
extern {
fn fopen(filename: *c_char, mode: *c_char) -> *FILE;
}
Functions within external blocks may be called by Rust code, just like functions defined in Rust. The Rust compiler automatically translates between the Rust ABI and the foreign ABI.
A number of attributes control the behavior of external blocks.
By default external blocks assume that the library they are calling
uses the standard C "cdecl" ABI. Other ABIs may be specified using
an abi
string, as shown here:
// Interface to the Windows API
extern "stdcall" { }
The link_name
attribute allows the name of the library to be specified.
#[link_name = "crypto"]
extern { }
The nolink
attribute tells the Rust compiler
not to do any linking for the external block.
This is particularly useful for creating external blocks for libc,
which tends to not follow standard library naming conventions
and is linked to all Rust programs anyway.
The type of a function
declared in an extern block
is extern "abi" fn(A1, ..., An) -> R
,
where A1...An
are the declared types of its arguments
and R
is the decalred return type.
Attributes
attribute : '#' '[' attr_list ']' ;
attr_list : attr [ ',' attr_list ]*
attr : ident [ '=' literal
| '(' attr_list ')' ] ? ;
Static entities in Rust -- crates, modules and items -- may have attributes applied to them. ^[Attributes in Rust are modeled on Attributes in ECMA-335, C#] An attribute is a general, free-form metadatum that is interpreted according to name, convention, and language and compiler version. Attributes may appear as any of
- A single identifier, the attribute name
- An identifier followed by the equals sign '=' and a literal, providing a key/value pair
- An identifier followed by a parenthesized list of sub-attribute arguments
Attributes terminated by a semi-colon apply to the entity that the attribute is declared within. Attributes that are not terminated by a semi-colon apply to the next entity.
An example of attributes:
// General metadata applied to the enclosing module or crate.
#[license = "BSD"];
// A function marked as a unit test
#[test]
fn test_foo() {
...
}
// A conditionally-compiled module
#[cfg(target_os="linux")]
mod bar {
...
}
// A lint attribute used to suppress a warning/error
#[allow(non_camel_case_types)]
pub type int8_t = i8;
Note: In future versions of Rust, user-provided extensions to the compiler will be able to interpret attributes. When this facility is provided, the compiler will distinguish between language-reserved and user-available attributes.
At present, only the Rust compiler interprets attributes, so all attribute names are effectively reserved. Some significant attributes include:
- The
doc
attribute, for documenting code in-place. - The
cfg
attribute, for conditional-compilation by build-configuration. - The
lang
attribute, for custom definitions of traits and functions that are known to the Rust compiler (see Language items). - The
link
attribute, for describing linkage metadata for a crate. - The
test
attribute, for marking functions as unit tests. - The
allow
,warn
,forbid
, anddeny
attributes, for controlling lint checks (see Lint check attributes). - The
deriving
attribute, for automatically generating implementations of certain traits. - The
static_assert
attribute, for asserting that a static bool is true at compiletime
Other attributes may be added or removed during development of the language.
Lint check attributes
A lint check names a potentially undesirable coding pattern, such as unreachable code or omitted documentation, for the static entity to which the attribute applies.
For any lint check C
:
warn(C)
warns about violations ofC
but continues compilation,deny(C)
signals an error after encountering a violation ofC
,allow(C)
overrides the check forC
so that violations will go unreported,forbid(C)
is the same asdeny(C)
, but also forbids uses ofallow(C)
within the entity.
The lint checks supported by the compiler can be found via rustc -W help
,
along with their default settings.
mod m1 {
// Missing documentation is ignored here
#[allow(missing_doc)]
pub fn undocumented_one() -> int { 1 }
// Missing documentation signals a warning here
#[warn(missing_doc)]
pub fn undocumented_too() -> int { 2 }
// Missing documentation signals an error here
#[deny(missing_doc)]
pub fn undocumented_end() -> int { 3 }
}
This example shows how one can use allow
and warn
to toggle
a particular check on and off.
#[warn(missing_doc)]
mod m2{
#[allow(missing_doc)]
mod nested {
// Missing documentation is ignored here
pub fn undocumented_one() -> int { 1 }
// Missing documentation signals a warning here,
// despite the allow above.
#[warn(missing_doc)]
pub fn undocumented_two() -> int { 2 }
}
// Missing documentation signals a warning here
pub fn undocumented_too() -> int { 3 }
}
This example shows how one can use forbid
to disallow uses
of allow
for that lint check.
#[forbid(missing_doc)]
mod m3 {
// Attempting to toggle warning signals an error here
#[allow(missing_doc)]
/// Returns 2.
pub fn undocumented_too() -> int { 2 }
}
Language items
Some primitive Rust operations are defined in Rust code,
rather than being implemented directly in C or assembly language.
The definitions of these operations have to be easy for the compiler to find.
The lang
attribute makes it possible to declare these operations.
For example, the str
module in the Rust standard library defines the string equality function:
#[lang="str_eq"]
pub fn eq_slice(a: &str, b: &str) -> bool {
// details elided
}
The name str_eq
has a special meaning to the Rust compiler,
and the presence of this definition means that it will use this definition
when generating calls to the string equality function.
A complete list of the built-in language items follows:
Traits
const
: Cannot be mutated.
owned
: Are uniquely owned.
durable
: Contain borrowed pointers.
drop
: Have finalizers.
add
: Elements can be added (for example, integers and floats).
sub
: Elements can be subtracted.
mul
: Elements can be multiplied.
div
: Elements have a division operation.
rem
: Elements have a remainder operation.
neg
: Elements can be negated arithmetically.
not
: Elements can be negated logically.
bitxor
: Elements have an exclusive-or operation.
bitand
: Elements have a bitwise and
operation.
bitor
: Elements have a bitwise or
operation.
shl
: Elements have a left shift operation.
shr
: Elements have a right shift operation.
index
: Elements can be indexed.
eq
: Elements can be compared for equality.
ord
: Elements have a partial ordering.
Operations
str_eq
: Compare two strings for equality.
uniq_str_eq
: Compare two owned strings for equality.
annihilate
: Destroy a box before freeing it.
log_type
: Generically print a string representation of any type.
fail_
: Abort the program with an error.
fail_bounds_check
: Abort the program with a bounds check error.
exchange_malloc
: Allocate memory on the exchange heap.
exchange_free
: Free memory that was allocated on the exchange heap.
malloc
: Allocate memory on the managed heap.
free
: Free memory that was allocated on the managed heap.
borrow_as_imm
: Create an immutable borrowed pointer to a mutable value.
return_to_mut
: Release a borrowed pointer created with return_to_mut
check_not_borrowed
: Fail if a value has existing borrowed pointers to it.
strdup_uniq
: Return a new unique string
containing a copy of the contents of a unique string.
Note: This list is likely to become out of date. We should auto-generate it from
librustc/middle/lang_items.rs
.
Deriving
The deriving
attribute allows certain traits to be automatically
implemented for data structures. For example, the following will
create an impl
for the Eq
and Clone
traits for Foo
, the type
parameter T
will be given the Eq
or Clone
constraints for the
appropriate impl
:
#[deriving(Eq, Clone)]
struct Foo<T> {
a: int,
b: T
}
The generated impl
for Eq
is equivalent to
# struct Foo<T> { a: int, b: T }
impl<T: Eq> Eq for Foo<T> {
fn eq(&self, other: &Foo<T>) -> bool {
self.a == other.a && self.b == other.b
}
fn ne(&self, other: &Foo<T>) -> bool {
self.a != other.a || self.b != other.b
}
}
Supported traits for deriving
are:
- Comparison traits:
Eq
,TotalEq
,Ord
,TotalOrd
. - Serialization:
Encodable
,Decodable
. These requireextra
. Clone
andDeepClone
, to perform (deep) copies.IterBytes
, to iterate over the bytes in a data type.Rand
, to create a random instance of a data type.Default
, to create an empty instance of a data type.Zero
, to create an zero instance of a numeric data type.ToStr
, to convert to a string. For a type with this instance,obj.to_str()
has similar output asfmt!("%?", obj)
, but it differs in that each constituent field of the type must also implementToStr
and will havefield.to_str()
invoked to build up the result.
Stability
One can indicate the stability of an API using the following attributes:
deprecated
: This item should no longer be used, e.g. it has been replaced. No guarantee of backwards-compatibility.experimental
: This item was only recently introduced or is otherwise in a state of flux. It may change significantly, or even be removed. No guarantee of backwards-compatibility.unstable
: This item is still under development, but requires more testing to be considered stable. No guarantee of backwards-compatibility.stable
: This item is considered stable, and will not change significantly. Guarantee of backwards-compatibility.frozen
: This item is very stable, and is unlikely to change. Guarantee of backwards-compatibility.locked
: This item will never change unless a serious bug is found. Guarantee of backwards-compatibility.
These levels are directly inspired by Node.js' "stability index".
There are lints for disallowing items marked with certain levels:
deprecated
, experimental
and unstable
; the first two will warn
by default. Items with not marked with a stability are considered to
be unstable for the purposes of the lint. One can give an optional
string that will be displayed when the lint flags the use of an item.
#[warn(unstable)];
#[deprecated="replaced by `best`"]
fn bad() {
// delete everything
}
fn better() {
// delete fewer things
}
#[stable]
fn best() {
// delete nothing
}
fn main() {
bad(); // "warning: use of deprecated item: replaced by `best`"
better(); // "warning: use of unmarked item"
best(); // no warning
}
Note: Currently these are only checked when applied to individual functions, structs, methods and enum variants, not to entire modules, traits, impls or enums themselves.
Statements and expressions
Rust is primarily an expression language. This means that most forms of value-producing or effect-causing evaluation are directed by the uniform syntax category of expressions. Each kind of expression can typically nest within each other kind of expression, and rules for evaluation of expressions involve specifying both the value produced by the expression and the order in which its sub-expressions are themselves evaluated.
In contrast, statements in Rust serve mostly to contain and explicitly sequence expression evaluation.
Statements
A statement is a component of a block, which is in turn a component of an outer expression or function.
Rust has two kinds of statement: declaration statements and expression statements.
Declaration statements
A declaration statement is one that introduces one or more names into the enclosing statement block. The declared names may denote new slots or new items.
Item declarations
An item declaration statement has a syntactic form identical to an item declaration within a module. Declaring an item -- a function, enumeration, structure, type, static, trait, implementation or module -- locally within a statement block is simply a way of restricting its scope to a narrow region containing all of its uses; it is otherwise identical in meaning to declaring the item outside the statement block.
Note: there is no implicit capture of the function's dynamic environment when declaring a function-local item.
Slot declarations
let_decl : "let" pat [':' type ] ? [ init ] ? ';' ;
init : [ '=' ] expr ;
A slot declaration introduces a new set of slots, given by a pattern. The pattern may be followed by a type annotation, and/or an initializer expression. When no type annotation is given, the compiler will infer the type, or signal an error if insufficient type information is available for definite inference. Any slots introduced by a slot declaration are visible from the point of declaration until the end of the enclosing block scope.
Expression statements
An expression statement is one that evaluates an expression
and ignores its result.
The type of an expression statement e;
is always ()
, regardless of the type of e
.
As a rule, an expression statement's purpose is to trigger the effects of evaluating its expression.
Expressions
An expression may have two roles: it always produces a value, and it may have effects (otherwise known as "side effects"). An expression evaluates to a value, and has effects during evaluation. Many expressions contain sub-expressions (operands). The meaning of each kind of expression dictates several things:
- Whether or not to evaluate the sub-expressions when evaluating the expression
- The order in which to evaluate the sub-expressions
- How to combine the sub-expressions' values to obtain the value of the expression.
In this way, the structure of expressions dictates the structure of execution. Blocks are just another kind of expression, so blocks, statements, expressions, and blocks again can recursively nest inside each other to an arbitrary depth.
Lvalues, rvalues and temporaries
Expressions are divided into two main categories: lvalues and rvalues. Likewise within each expression, sub-expressions may occur in lvalue context or rvalue context. The evaluation of an expression depends both on its own category and the context it occurs within.
Path, field and index expressions are lvalues. All other expressions are rvalues.
The left operand of an assignment, binary move or compound-assignment expression is an lvalue context, as is the single operand of a unary borrow, or move expression, and both operands of a swap expression. All other expression contexts are rvalue contexts.
When an lvalue is evaluated in an lvalue context, it denotes a memory location; when evaluated in an rvalue context, it denotes the value held in that memory location.
When an rvalue is used in lvalue context, a temporary un-named lvalue is created and used instead. A temporary's lifetime equals the largest lifetime of any borrowed pointer that points to it.
Moved and copied types
When a local variable is used
as an rvalue
the variable will either be moved or copied,
depending on its type.
For types that contain owning pointers
or values that implement the special trait Drop
,
the variable is moved.
All other types are copied.
Literal expressions
A literal expression consists of one of the literal forms described earlier. It directly describes a number, character, string, boolean value, or the unit value.
(); // unit type
"hello"; // string type
'5'; // character type
5; // integer type
Path expressions
A path used as an expression context denotes either a local variable or an item. Path expressions are lvalues.
Tuple expressions
Tuples are written by enclosing one or more comma-separated expressions in parentheses. They are used to create tuple-typed values.
(0,);
(0f, 4.5f);
("a", 4u, true);
Structure expressions
struct_expr : expr_path '{' ident ':' expr
[ ',' ident ':' expr ] *
[ ".." expr ] '}' |
expr_path '(' expr
[ ',' expr ] * ')' |
expr_path
There are several forms of structure expressions. A structure expression consists of the path of a structure item, followed by a brace-enclosed list of one or more comma-separated name-value pairs, providing the field values of a new instance of the structure. A field name can be any identifier, and is separated from its value expression by a colon. The location denoted by a structure field is mutable if and only if the enclosing structure is mutable.
A tuple structure expression consists of the path of a structure item, followed by a parenthesized list of one or more comma-separated expressions (in other words, the path of a structure item followed by a tuple expression). The structure item must be a tuple structure item.
A unit-like structure expression consists only of the path of a structure item.
The following are examples of structure expressions:
# struct Point { x: float, y: float }
# struct TuplePoint(float, float);
# mod game { pub struct User<'self> { name: &'self str, age: uint, score: uint } }
# struct Cookie; fn some_fn<T>(t: T) {}
Point {x: 10f, y: 20f};
TuplePoint(10f, 20f);
let u = game::User {name: "Joe", age: 35, score: 100_000};
some_fn::<Cookie>(Cookie);
A structure expression forms a new value of the named structure type. Note that for a given unit-like structure type, this will always be the same value.
A structure expression can terminate with the syntax ..
followed by an expression to denote a functional update.
The expression following ..
(the base) must have the same structure type as the new structure type being formed.
The entire expression denotes the result of allocating a new structure
(with the same type as the base expression)
with the given values for the fields that were explicitly specified
and the values in the base record for all other fields.
# struct Point3d { x: int, y: int, z: int }
let base = Point3d {x: 1, y: 2, z: 3};
Point3d {y: 0, z: 10, .. base};
Record expressions
rec_expr : '{' ident ':' expr
[ ',' ident ':' expr ] *
[ ".." expr ] '}'
Method-call expressions
method_call_expr : expr '.' ident paren_expr_list ;
A method call consists of an expression followed by a single dot, an identifier, and a parenthesized expression-list.
Method calls are resolved to methods on specific traits,
either statically dispatching to a method if the exact self
-type of the left-hand-side is known,
or dynamically dispatching if the left-hand-side expression is an indirect object type.
Field expressions
field_expr : expr '.' ident
A field expression consists of an expression followed by a single dot and an identifier, when not immediately followed by a parenthesized expression-list (the latter is a method call expression). A field expression denotes a field of a structure.
myrecord.myfield;
{a: 10, b: 20}.a;
A field access on a record is an lvalue referring to the value of that field. When the field is mutable, it can be assigned to.
When the type of the expression to the left of the dot is a pointer to a record or structure, it is automatically dereferenced to make the field access possible.
Vector expressions
vec_expr : '[' "mut" ? vec_elems? ']'
vec_elems : [expr [',' expr]*] | [expr ',' ".." expr]
A vector expression is written by enclosing zero or more comma-separated expressions of uniform type in square brackets.
In the [expr ',' ".." expr]
form, the expression after the ".."
must be a constant expression that can be evaluated at compile time, such
as a literal or a static item.
[1, 2, 3, 4];
["a", "b", "c", "d"];
[0, ..128]; // vector with 128 zeros
[0u8, 0u8, 0u8, 0u8];
Index expressions
idx_expr : expr '[' expr ']'
Vector-typed expressions can be indexed by writing a square-bracket-enclosed expression (the index) after them. When the vector is mutable, the resulting lvalue can be assigned to.
Indices are zero-based, and may be of any integral type. Vector access is bounds-checked at run-time. When the check fails, it will put the task in a failing state.
# use std::task;
# do task::spawn_unlinked {
([1, 2, 3, 4])[0];
(["a", "b"])[10]; // fails
# }
Unary operator expressions
Rust defines six symbolic unary operators. They are all written as prefix operators, before the expression they apply to.
-
: Negation. May only be applied to numeric types.
*
: Dereference. When applied to a pointer it denotes the pointed-to location.
For pointers to mutable locations, the resulting lvalue can be assigned to.
For enums that have only a single variant, containing a single parameter,
the dereference operator accesses this parameter.
!
: Logical negation. On the boolean type, this flips between true
and
false
. On integer types, this inverts the individual bits in the
two's complement representation of the value.
@
and ~
: Boxing operators. Allocate a box to hold the value they are applied to,
and store the value in it. @
creates a managed box, whereas ~
creates an owned box.
&
: Borrow operator. Returns a borrowed pointer, pointing to its operand.
The operand of a borrowed pointer is statically proven to outlive the resulting pointer.
If the borrow-checker cannot prove this, it is a compilation error.
Binary operator expressions
binop_expr : expr binop expr ;
Binary operators expressions are given in terms of operator precedence.
Arithmetic operators
Binary arithmetic expressions are syntactic sugar for calls to built-in traits,
defined in the std::ops
module of the std
library.
This means that arithmetic operators can be overridden for user-defined types.
The default meaning of the operators on standard types is given here.
+
: Addition and vector/string concatenation.
Calls the add
method on the std::ops::Add
trait.
-
: Subtraction.
Calls the sub
method on the std::ops::Sub
trait.
*
: Multiplication.
Calls the mul
method on the std::ops::Mul
trait.
/
: Quotient.
Calls the div
method on the std::ops::Div
trait.
%
: Remainder.
Calls the rem
method on the std::ops::Rem
trait.
Bitwise operators
Like the arithmetic operators, bitwise operators are syntactic sugar for calls to methods of built-in traits. This means that bitwise operators can be overridden for user-defined types. The default meaning of the operators on standard types is given here.
&
: And.
Calls the bitand
method of the std::ops::BitAnd
trait.
|
: Inclusive or.
Calls the bitor
method of the std::ops::BitOr
trait.
^
: Exclusive or.
Calls the bitxor
method of the std::ops::BitXor
trait.
<<
: Logical left shift.
Calls the shl
method of the std::ops::Shl
trait.
>>
: Logical right shift.
Calls the shr
method of the std::ops::Shr
trait.
Lazy boolean operators
The operators ||
and &&
may be applied to operands of boolean type.
The ||
operator denotes logical 'or', and the &&
operator denotes logical 'and'.
They differ from |
and &
in that the right-hand operand is only evaluated
when the left-hand operand does not already determine the result of the expression.
That is, ||
only evaluates its right-hand operand
when the left-hand operand evaluates to false
, and &&
only when it evaluates to true
.
Comparison operators
Comparison operators are, like the arithmetic operators, and bitwise operators, syntactic sugar for calls to built-in traits. This means that comparison operators can be overridden for user-defined types. The default meaning of the operators on standard types is given here.
==
: Equal to.
Calls the eq
method on the std::cmp::Eq
trait.
!=
: Unequal to.
Calls the ne
method on the std::cmp::Eq
trait.
<
: Less than.
Calls the lt
method on the std::cmp::Ord
trait.
>
: Greater than.
Calls the gt
method on the std::cmp::Ord
trait.
<=
: Less than or equal.
Calls the le
method on the std::cmp::Ord
trait.
>=
: Greater than or equal.
Calls the ge
method on the std::cmp::Ord
trait.
Type cast expressions
A type cast expression is denoted with the binary operator as
.
Executing an as
expression casts the value on the left-hand side to the type
on the right-hand side.
A numeric value can be cast to any numeric type. A raw pointer value can be cast to or from any integral type or raw pointer type. Any other cast is unsupported and will fail to compile.
An example of an as
expression:
# fn sum(v: &[float]) -> float { 0.0 }
# fn len(v: &[float]) -> int { 0 }
fn avg(v: &[float]) -> float {
let sum: float = sum(v);
let sz: float = len(v) as float;
return sum / sz;
}
Assignment expressions
An assignment expression consists of an lvalue expression followed by an
equals sign (=
) and an rvalue expression.
Evaluating an assignment expression either copies or moves its right-hand operand to its left-hand operand.
# let mut x = 0;
# let y = 0;
x = y;
Compound assignment expressions
The +
, -
, *
, /
, %
, &
, |
, ^
, <<
, and >>
operators may be composed with the =
operator. The expression lval OP= val
is equivalent to lval = lval OP val
. For example, x = x + 1
may be written as x += 1
.
Any such expression always has the unit
type.
Operator precedence
The precedence of Rust binary operators is ordered as follows, going from strong to weak:
* / %
as
+ -
<< >>
&
^
|
< > <= >=
== !=
&&
||
=
Operators at the same precedence level are evaluated left-to-right. Unary operators have the same precedence level and it is stronger than any of the binary operators'.
Grouped expressions
An expression enclosed in parentheses evaluates to the result of the enclosed expression. Parentheses can be used to explicitly specify evaluation order within an expression.
paren_expr : '(' expr ')' ;
An example of a parenthesized expression:
let x = (2 + 3) * 4;
Call expressions
expr_list : [ expr [ ',' expr ]* ] ? ;
paren_expr_list : '(' expr_list ')' ;
call_expr : expr paren_expr_list ;
A call expression invokes a function, providing zero or more input slots and
an optional reference slot to serve as the function's output, bound to the
lval
on the right hand side of the call. If the function eventually returns,
then the expression completes.
Some examples of call expressions:
# use std::from_str::FromStr;
# fn add(x: int, y: int) -> int { 0 }
let x: int = add(1, 2);
let pi: Option<f32> = FromStr::from_str("3.14");
Lambda expressions
ident_list : [ ident [ ',' ident ]* ] ? ;
lambda_expr : '|' ident_list '|' expr ;
A lambda expression (sometimes called an "anonymous function expression") defines a function and denotes it as a value,
in a single expression.
A lambda expression is a pipe-symbol-delimited (|
) list of identifiers followed by an expression.
A lambda expression denotes a function that maps a list of parameters (ident_list
)
onto the expression that follows the ident_list
.
The identifiers in the ident_list
are the parameters to the function.
These parameters' types need not be specified, as the compiler infers them from context.
Lambda expressions are most useful when passing functions as arguments to other functions, as an abbreviation for defining and capturing a separate function.
Significantly, lambda expressions capture their environment,
which regular function definitions do not.
The exact type of capture depends on the function type inferred for the lambda expression.
In the simplest and least-expensive form (analogous to a &fn() { }
expression),
the lambda expression captures its environment by reference,
effectively borrowing pointers to all outer variables mentioned inside the function.
Alternately, the compiler may infer that a lambda expression should copy or move values (depending on their type.)
from the environment into the lambda expression's captured environment.
In this example, we define a function ten_times
that takes a higher-order function argument,
and call it with a lambda expression as an argument.
fn ten_times(f: &fn(int)) {
let mut i = 0;
while i < 10 {
f(i);
i += 1;
}
}
ten_times(|j| println(fmt!("hello, %d", j)));
While loops
while_expr : "while" expr '{' block '}' ;
A while
loop begins by evaluating the boolean loop conditional expression.
If the loop conditional expression evaluates to true
, the loop body block
executes and control returns to the loop conditional expression. If the loop
conditional expression evaluates to false
, the while
expression completes.
An example:
let mut i = 0;
while i < 10 {
println("hello\n");
i = i + 1;
}
Infinite loops
The keyword loop
in Rust appears both in loop expressions and in continue expressions.
A loop expression denotes an infinite loop;
see Continue expressions for continue expressions.
loop_expr : [ lifetime ':' ] "loop" '{' block '}';
A loop
expression may optionally have a label.
If a label is present,
then labeled break
and loop
expressions nested within this loop may exit out of this loop or return control to its head.
See Break expressions.
Break expressions
break_expr : "break" [ lifetime ];
A break
expression has an optional label
.
If the label is absent, then executing a break
expression immediately terminates the innermost loop enclosing it.
It is only permitted in the body of a loop.
If the label is present, then break foo
terminates the loop with label foo
,
which need not be the innermost label enclosing the break
expression,
but must enclose it.
Continue expressions
continue_expr : "loop" [ lifetime ];
A continue expression, written loop
, also has an optional label
.
If the label is absent,
then executing a loop
expression immediately terminates the current iteration of the innermost loop enclosing it,
returning control to the loop head.
In the case of a while
loop,
the head is the conditional expression controlling the loop.
In the case of a for
loop, the head is the call-expression controlling the loop.
If the label is present, then loop foo
returns control to the head of the loop with label foo
,
which need not be the innermost label enclosing the break
expression,
but must enclose it.
A loop
expression is only permitted in the body of a loop.
Do expressions
do_expr : "do" expr [ '|' ident_list '|' ] ? '{' block '}' ;
A do expression provides a more-familiar block-syntax for a lambda expression, including a special translation of return expressions inside the supplied block.
Any occurrence of a return expression
inside this block
expression is rewritten
as a reference to an (anonymous) flag set in the caller's environment,
which is checked on return from the expr
and, if set,
causes a corresponding return from the caller.
In this way, the meaning of return
statements in language built-in control blocks is preserved,
if they are rewritten using lambda functions and do
expressions as abstractions.
The optional ident_list
and block
provided in a do
expression are parsed as though they constitute a lambda expression;
if the ident_list
is missing, an empty ident_list
is implied.
The lambda expression is then provided as a trailing argument
to the outermost call or method call expression
in the expr
following do
.
If the expr
is a path expression, it is parsed as though it is a call expression.
If the expr
is a field expression, it is parsed as though it is a method call expression.
In this example, both calls to f
are equivalent:
# fn f(f: &fn(int)) { }
# fn g(i: int) { }
f(|j| g(j));
do f |j| {
g(j);
}
In this example, both calls to the (binary) function k
are equivalent:
# fn k(x:int, f: &fn(int)) { }
# fn l(i: int) { }
k(3, |j| l(j));
do k(3) |j| {
l(j);
}
For expressions
for_expr : "for" pat "in" expr '{' block '}' ;
A for
expression is a syntactic construct for looping
over elements provided by an implementation of
std::iterator::Iterator
.
An example of a for loop over the contents of a vector:
# type foo = int;
# fn bar(f: foo) { }
# let a = 0;
# let b = 0;
# let c = 0;
let v: &[foo] = &[a, b, c];
for e in v.iter() {
bar(*e);
}
An example of a for loop over a series of integers:
# fn bar(b:uint) { }
for i in range(0u, 256) {
bar(i);
}
If expressions
if_expr : "if" expr '{' block '}'
else_tail ? ;
else_tail : "else" [ if_expr
| '{' block '}' ] ;
An if
expression is a conditional branch in program control. The form of
an if
expression is a condition expression, followed by a consequent
block, any number of else if
conditions and blocks, and an optional
trailing else
block. The condition expressions must have type
bool
. If a condition expression evaluates to true
, the
consequent block is executed and any subsequent else if
or else
block is skipped. If a condition expression evaluates to false
, the
consequent block is skipped and any subsequent else if
condition is
evaluated. If all if
and else if
conditions evaluate to false
then any else
block is executed.
Match expressions
match_expr : "match" expr '{' match_arm [ '|' match_arm ] * '}' ;
match_arm : match_pat '=>' [ expr "," | '{' block '}' ] ;
match_pat : pat [ ".." pat ] ? [ "if" expr ] ;
A match
expression branches on a pattern. The exact form of matching that
occurs depends on the pattern. Patterns consist of some combination of
literals, destructured enum constructors, structures, records and tuples, variable binding
specifications, wildcards (*
), and placeholders (_
). A match
expression has a head
expression, which is the value to compare to the patterns. The type of the
patterns must equal the type of the head expression.
In a pattern whose head expression has an enum
type, a placeholder (_
) stands for a
single data field, whereas a wildcard *
stands for all the fields of a particular
variant. For example:
enum List<X> { Nil, Cons(X, @List<X>) }
let x: List<int> = Cons(10, @Cons(11, @Nil));
match x {
Cons(_, @Nil) => fail!("singleton list"),
Cons(*) => return,
Nil => fail!("empty list")
}
The first pattern matches lists constructed by applying Cons
to any head value, and a
tail value of @Nil
. The second pattern matches any list constructed with Cons
,
ignoring the values of its arguments. The difference between _
and *
is that the pattern C(_)
is only type-correct if
C
has exactly one argument, while the pattern C(*)
is type-correct for any enum variant C
, regardless of how many arguments C
has.
To execute an match
expression, first the head expression is evaluated, then
its value is sequentially compared to the patterns in the arms until a match
is found. The first arm with a matching pattern is chosen as the branch target
of the match
, any variables bound by the pattern are assigned to local
variables in the arm's block, and control enters the block.
An example of an match
expression:
# fn process_pair(a: int, b: int) { }
# fn process_ten() { }
enum List<X> { Nil, Cons(X, @List<X>) }
let x: List<int> = Cons(10, @Cons(11, @Nil));
match x {
Cons(a, @Cons(b, _)) => {
process_pair(a,b);
}
Cons(10, _) => {
process_ten();
}
Nil => {
return;
}
_ => {
fail!();
}
}
Patterns that bind variables
default to binding to a copy or move of the matched value
(depending on the matched value's type).
This can be changed to bind to a borrowed pointer by
using the ref
keyword,
or to a mutable borrowed pointer using ref mut
.
A pattern that's just an identifier,
like Nil
in the previous answer,
could either refer to an enum variant that's in scope,
or bind a new variable.
The compiler resolves this ambiguity by forbidding variable bindings that occur in match
patterns from shadowing names of variants that are in scope.
For example, wherever List
is in scope,
a match
pattern would not be able to bind Nil
as a new name.
The compiler interprets a variable pattern x
as a binding only if there is no variant named x
in scope.
A convention you can use to avoid conflicts is simply to name variants with upper-case letters,
and local variables with lower-case letters.
Multiple match patterns may be joined with the |
operator.
A range of values may be specified with ..
.
For example:
# let x = 2;
let message = match x {
0 | 1 => "not many",
2 .. 9 => "a few",
_ => "lots"
};
Range patterns only work on scalar types
(like integers and characters; not like vectors and structs, which have sub-components).
A range pattern may not be a sub-range of another range pattern inside the same match
.
Finally, match patterns can accept pattern guards to further refine the
criteria for matching a case. Pattern guards appear after the pattern and
consist of a bool-typed expression following the if
keyword. A pattern
guard may refer to the variables bound within the pattern they follow.
# let maybe_digit = Some(0);
# fn process_digit(i: int) { }
# fn process_other(i: int) { }
let message = match maybe_digit {
Some(x) if x < 10 => process_digit(x),
Some(x) => process_other(x),
None => fail!()
};
Return expressions
return_expr : "return" expr ? ;
Return expressions are denoted with the keyword return
. Evaluating a return
expression moves its argument into the output slot of the current
function, destroys the current function activation frame, and transfers
control to the caller frame.
An example of a return
expression:
fn max(a: int, b: int) -> int {
if a > b {
return a;
}
return b;
}
Type system
Types
Every slot, item and value in a Rust program has a type. The type of a value defines the interpretation of the memory holding it.
Built-in types and type-constructors are tightly integrated into the language, in nontrivial ways that are not possible to emulate in user-defined types. User-defined types have limited capabilities.
Primitive types
The primitive types are the following:
- The "unit" type
()
, having the single "unit" value()
(occasionally called "nil"). ^[The "unit" value()
is not a sentinel "null pointer" value for reference slots; the "unit" type is the implicit return type from functions otherwise lacking a return type, and can be used in other contexts (such as message-sending or type-parametric code) as a zero-size type.] - The boolean type
bool
with valuestrue
andfalse
. - The machine types.
- The machine-dependent integer and floating-point types.
Machine types
The machine types are the following:
-
The unsigned word types
u8
,u16
,u32
andu64
, with values drawn from the integer intervals[0, 2^8 - 1]
,[0, 2^{16} - 1]
,[0, 2^{32} - 1]
and[0, 2^{64} - 1]
respectively. -
The signed two's complement word types
i8
,i16
,i32
andi64
, with values drawn from the integer intervals[-(2^7), 2^7 - 1]
,[-(2^{15}), 2^{15} - 1]
,[-(2^{31}), 2^{31} - 1]
,[-(2^{63}), 2^{63} - 1]
respectively. -
The IEEE 754-2008
binary32
andbinary64
floating-point types:f32
andf64
, respectively.
Machine-dependent integer types
The Rust type uint
^[A Rust uint
is analogous to a C99 uintptr_t
.] is an
unsigned integer type with target-machine-dependent size. Its size, in
bits, is equal to the number of bits required to hold any memory address on
the target machine.
The Rust type int
^[A Rust int
is analogous to a C99 intptr_t
.] is a
two's complement signed integer type with target-machine-dependent size. Its
size, in bits, is equal to the size of the rust type uint
on the same target
machine.
Machine-dependent floating point type
The Rust type float
is a machine-specific type equal to one of the supported
Rust floating-point machine types (f32
or f64
). It is the largest
floating-point type that is directly supported by hardware on the target
machine, or if the target machine has no floating-point hardware support, the
largest floating-point type supported by the software floating-point library
used to support the other floating-point machine types.
Note that due to the preference for hardware-supported floating-point, the
type float
may not be equal to the largest supported floating-point type.
Textual types
The types char
and str
hold textual data.
A value of type char
is a Unicode character,
represented as a 32-bit unsigned word holding a UCS-4 codepoint.
A value of type str
is a Unicode string,
represented as a vector of 8-bit unsigned bytes holding a sequence of UTF-8 codepoints.
Since str
is of unknown size, it is not a first class type,
but can only be instantiated through a pointer type,
such as &str
, @str
or ~str
.
Tuple types
The tuple type-constructor forms a new heterogeneous product of values similar to the record type-constructor. The differences are as follows:
- tuple elements cannot be mutable, unlike record fields
- tuple elements are not named and can be accessed only by pattern-matching
Tuple types and values are denoted by listing the types or values of their elements, respectively, in a parenthesized, comma-separated list.
The members of a tuple are laid out in memory contiguously, like a record, in order specified by the tuple type.
An example of a tuple type and its use:
type Pair<'self> = (int,&'self str);
let p: Pair<'static> = (10,"hello");
let (a, b) = p;
assert!(b != "world");
Vector types
The vector type constructor represents a homogeneous array of values of a given type.
A vector has a fixed size.
(Operations like vec.push
operate solely on owned vectors.)
A vector type can be annotated with a definite size,
written with a trailing asterisk and integer literal, such as [int * 10]
.
Such a definite-sized vector type is a first-class type, since its size is known statically.
A vector without such a size is said to be of indefinite size,
and is therefore not a first-class type.
An indefinite-size vector can only be instantiated through a pointer type,
such as &[T]
, @[T]
or ~[T]
.
The kind of a vector type depends on the kind of its element type,
as with other simple structural types.
Expressions producing vectors of definite size cannot be evaluated in a context expecting a vector of indefinite size; one must copy the definite-sized vector contents into a distinct vector of indefinite size.
An example of a vector type and its use:
let v: &[int] = &[7, 5, 3];
let i: int = v[2];
assert!(i == 3);
All in-bounds elements of a vector are always initialized, and access to a vector is always bounds-checked.
Structure types
A struct
type is a heterogeneous product of other types, called the fields of the type.
^[struct
types are analogous struct
types in C,
the record types of the ML family,
or the structure types of the Lisp family.]
New instances of a struct
can be constructed with a struct expression.
The memory order of fields in a struct
is given by the item defining it.
Fields may be given in any order in a corresponding struct expression;
the resulting struct
value will always be laid out in memory in the order specified by the corresponding item.
The fields of a struct
may be qualified by visibility modifiers,
to restrict access to implementation-private data in a structure.
A tuple struct type is just like a structure type, except that the fields are anonymous.
A unit-like struct type is like a structure type, except that it has no fields. The one value constructed by the associated structure expression is the only value that inhabits such a type.
Enumerated types
An enumerated type is a nominal, heterogeneous disjoint union type,
denoted by the name of an enum
item.
^[The enum
type is analogous to a data
constructor declaration in ML,
or a pick ADT in Limbo.]
An enum
item declares both the type and a number of variant constructors,
each of which is independently named and takes an optional tuple of arguments.
New instances of an enum
can be constructed by calling one of the variant constructors,
in a call expression.
Any enum
value consumes as much memory as the largest variant constructor for its corresponding enum
type.
Enum types cannot be denoted structurally as types,
but must be denoted by named reference to an enum
item.
Recursive types
Nominal types -- enumerations and structures -- may be recursive.
That is, each enum
constructor or struct
field may refer, directly or indirectly, to the enclosing enum
or struct
type itself.
Such recursion has restrictions:
- Recursive types must include a nominal type in the recursion (not mere type definitions, or other structural types such as vectors or tuples).
- A recursive
enum
item must have at least one non-recursive constructor (in order to give the recursion a basis case). - The size of a recursive type must be finite; in other words the recursive fields of the type must be pointer types.
- Recursive type definitions can cross module boundaries, but not module visibility boundaries, or crate boundaries (in order to simplify the module system and type checker).
An example of a recursive type and its use:
enum List<T> {
Nil,
Cons(T, @List<T>)
}
let a: List<int> = Cons(7, @Cons(13, @Nil));
Pointer types
All pointers in Rust are explicit first-class values. They can be copied, stored into data structures, and returned from functions. There are four varieties of pointer in Rust:
Managed pointers (@
)
: These point to managed heap allocations (or "boxes") in the task-local, managed heap.
Managed pointers are written @content
,
for example @int
means a managed pointer to a managed box containing an integer.
Copying a managed pointer is a "shallow" operation:
it involves only copying the pointer itself
(as well as any reference-count or GC-barriers required by the managed heap).
Dropping a managed pointer does not necessarily release the box it points to;
the lifecycles of managed boxes are subject to an unspecified garbage collection algorithm.
Owning pointers (~
)
: These point to owned heap allocations (or "boxes") in the shared, inter-task heap.
Each owned box has a single owning pointer; pointer and pointee retain a 1:1 relationship at all times.
Owning pointers are written ~content
,
for example ~int
means an owning pointer to an owned box containing an integer.
Copying an owned box is a "deep" operation:
it involves allocating a new owned box and copying the contents of the old box into the new box.
Releasing an owning pointer immediately releases its corresponding owned box.
Borrowed pointers (&
)
: These point to memory owned by some other value.
Borrowed pointers arise by (automatic) conversion from owning pointers, managed pointers,
or by applying the borrowing operator &
to some other value,
including lvalues, rvalues or temporaries.
Borrowed pointers are written &content
, or in some cases &f/content
for some lifetime-variable f
,
for example &int
means a borrowed pointer to an integer.
Copying a borrowed pointer is a "shallow" operation:
it involves only copying the pointer itself.
Releasing a borrowed pointer typically has no effect on the value it points to,
with the exception of temporary values,
which are released when the last borrowed pointer to them is released.
Raw pointers (*
)
: Raw pointers are pointers without safety or liveness guarantees.
Raw pointers are written *content
,
for example *int
means a raw pointer to an integer.
Copying or dropping a raw pointer is has no effect on the lifecycle of any other value.
Dereferencing a raw pointer or converting it to any other pointer type is an unsafe
operation.
Raw pointers are generally discouraged in Rust code;
they exist to support interoperability with foreign code,
and writing performance-critical or low-level functions.
Function types
The function type constructor fn
forms new function types.
A function type consists of a possibly-empty set of function-type modifiers
(such as unsafe
or extern
), a sequence of input types and an output type.
An example of a fn
type:
fn add(x: int, y: int) -> int {
return x + y;
}
let mut x = add(5,7);
type Binop<'self> = &'self fn(int,int) -> int;
let bo: Binop = add;
x = bo(5,7);
Object types
Every trait item (see traits) defines a type with the same name as the trait. This type is called the object type of the trait. Object types permit "late binding" of methods, dispatched using virtual method tables ("vtables"). Whereas most calls to trait methods are "early bound" (statically resolved) to specific implementations at compile time, a call to a method on an object type is only resolved to a vtable entry at compile time. The actual implementation for each vtable entry can vary on an object-by-object basis.
Given a pointer-typed expression E
of type &T
, ~T
or @T
, where T
implements trait R
,
casting E
to the corresponding pointer type &R
, ~R
or @R
results in a value of the object type R
.
This result is represented as a pair of pointers:
the vtable pointer for the T
implementation of R
, and the pointer value of E
.
An example of an object type:
trait Printable {
fn to_string(&self) -> ~str;
}
impl Printable for int {
fn to_string(&self) -> ~str { self.to_str() }
}
fn print(a: @Printable) {
println(a.to_string());
}
fn main() {
print(@10 as @Printable);
}
In this example, the trait Printable
occurs as an object type in both the type signature of print
,
and the cast expression in main
.
Type parameters
Within the body of an item that has type parameter declarations, the names of its type parameters are types:
fn map<A: Clone, B: Clone>(f: &fn(A) -> B, xs: &[A]) -> ~[B] {
if xs.len() == 0 {
return ~[];
}
let first: B = f(xs[0].clone());
let rest: ~[B] = map(f, xs.slice(1, xs.len()));
return ~[first] + rest;
}
Here, first
has type B
, referring to map
's B
type parameter;
and rest
has type ~[B]
, a vector type with element type B
.
Self types
The special type self
has a meaning within methods inside an
impl item. It refers to the type of the implicit self
argument. For
example, in:
trait Printable {
fn make_string(&self) -> ~str;
}
impl Printable for ~str {
fn make_string(&self) -> ~str {
(*self).clone()
}
}
self
refers to the value of type ~str
that is the receiver for a
call to the method make_string
.
Type kinds
Types in Rust are categorized into kinds, based on various properties of the components of the type. The kinds are:
Freeze
: Types of this kind are deeply immutable;
they contain no mutable memory locations
directly or indirectly via pointers.
Send
: Types of this kind can be safely sent between tasks.
This kind includes scalars, owning pointers, owned closures, and
structural types containing only other owned types.
All Send
types are 'static
.
'static
: Types of this kind do not contain any borrowed pointers;
this can be a useful guarantee for code
that breaks borrowing assumptions
using unsafe
operations.
Drop
: This is not strictly a kind,
but its presence interacts with kinds:
the Drop
trait provides a single method drop
that takes no parameters,
and is run when values of the type are dropped.
Such a method is called a "destructor",
and are always executed in "top-down" order:
a value is completely destroyed
before any of the values it owns run their destructors.
Only Send
types can implement Drop
.
Default : Types with destructors, closure environments, and various other non-first-class types, are not copyable at all. Such types can usually only be accessed through pointers, or in some cases, moved between mutable locations.
Kinds can be supplied as bounds on type parameters, like traits, in which case the parameter is constrained to types satisfying that kind.
By default, type parameters do not carry any assumed kind-bounds at all. When instantiating a type parameter, the kind bounds on the parameter are checked to be the same or narrower than the kind of the type that it is instantiated with.
Sending operations are not part of the Rust language, but are implemented in the library. Generic functions that send values bound the kind of these values to sendable.
Memory and concurrency models
Rust has a memory model centered around concurrently-executing tasks. Thus its memory model and its concurrency model are best discussed simultaneously, as parts of each only make sense when considered from the perspective of the other.
When reading about the memory model, keep in mind that it is partitioned in order to support tasks; and when reading about tasks, keep in mind that their isolation and communication mechanisms are only possible due to the ownership and lifetime semantics of the memory model.
Memory model
A Rust program's memory consists of a static set of items, a set of tasks each with its own stack, and a heap. Immutable portions of the heap may be shared between tasks, mutable portions may not.
Allocations in the stack consist of slots, and allocations in the heap consist of boxes.
Memory allocation and lifetime
The items of a program are those functions, modules and types that have their value calculated at compile-time and stored uniquely in the memory image of the rust process. Items are neither dynamically allocated nor freed.
A task's stack consists of activation frames automatically allocated on entry to each function as the task executes. A stack allocation is reclaimed when control leaves the frame containing it.
The heap is a general term that describes two separate sets of boxes: managed boxes -- which may be subject to garbage collection -- and owned boxes. The lifetime of an allocation in the heap depends on the lifetime of the box values pointing to it. Since box values may themselves be passed in and out of frames, or stored in the heap, heap allocations may outlive the frame they are allocated within.
Memory ownership
A task owns all memory it can safely reach through local variables, as well as managed, owning and borrowed pointers.
When a task sends a value that has the Send
trait to another task,
it loses ownership of the value sent and can no longer refer to it.
This is statically guaranteed by the combined use of "move semantics",
and the compiler-checked meaning of the Send
trait:
it is only instantiated for (transitively) sendable kinds of data constructor and pointers,
never including managed or borrowed pointers.
When a stack frame is exited, its local allocations are all released, and its references to boxes (both managed and owned) are dropped.
A managed box may (in the case of a recursive, mutable managed type) be cyclic; in this case the release of memory inside the managed structure may be deferred until task-local garbage collection can reclaim it. Code can ensure no such delayed deallocation occurs by restricting itself to owned boxes and similar unmanaged kinds of data.
When a task finishes, its stack is necessarily empty and it therefore has no references to any boxes; the remainder of its heap is immediately freed.
Memory slots
A task's stack contains slots.
A slot is a component of a stack frame, either a function parameter, a temporary, or a local variable.
A local variable (or stack-local allocation) holds a value directly, allocated within the stack's memory. The value is a part of the stack frame.
Local variables are immutable unless declared with let mut
. The
mut
keyword applies to all local variables declared within that
declaration (so let mut (x, y) = ...
declares two mutable variables, x
and
y
).
Function parameters are immutable unless declared with mut
. The
mut
keyword applies only to the following parameter (so |mut x, y|
and fn f(mut x: ~int, y: ~int)
declare one mutable variable x
and
one immutable variable y
).
Local variables are not initialized when allocated; the entire frame worth of local variables are allocated at once, on frame-entry, in an uninitialized state. Subsequent statements within a function may or may not initialize the local variables. Local variables can be used only after they have been initialized; this is enforced by the compiler.
Memory boxes
A box is a reference to a heap allocation holding another value. There are two kinds of boxes: managed boxes and owned boxes.
A managed box type or value is constructed by the prefix at sigil @
.
An owned box type or value is constructed by the prefix tilde sigil ~
.
Multiple managed box values can point to the same heap allocation; copying a managed box value makes a shallow copy of the pointer (optionally incrementing a reference count, if the managed box is implemented through reference-counting).
Owned box values exist in 1:1 correspondence with their heap allocation.
An example of constructing one managed box type and value, and one owned box type and value:
let x: @int = @10;
let x: ~int = ~10;
Some operations (such as field selection) implicitly dereference boxes. An example of an implicit dereference operation performed on box values:
struct Foo { y: int }
let x = @Foo{y: 10};
assert!(x.y == 10);
Other operations act on box values as single-word-sized address values. For
these operations, to access the value held in the box requires an explicit
dereference of the box value. Explicitly dereferencing a box is indicated with
the unary star operator *
. Examples of such explicit dereference
operations are:
- copying box values (
x = y
) - passing box values to functions (
f(x,y)
)
An example of an explicit-dereference operation performed on box values:
fn takes_boxed(b: @int) {
}
fn takes_unboxed(b: int) {
}
fn main() {
let x: @int = @10;
takes_boxed(x);
takes_unboxed(*x);
}
Tasks
An executing Rust program consists of a tree of tasks. A Rust task consists of an entry function, a stack, a set of outgoing communication channels and incoming communication ports, and ownership of some portion of the heap of a single operating-system process. (We expect that many programs will not use channels and ports directly, but will instead use higher-level abstractions provided in standard libraries, such as pipes.)
Multiple Rust tasks may coexist in a single operating-system process. The runtime scheduler maps tasks to a certain number of operating-system threads. By default, the scheduler chooses the number of threads based on the number of concurrent physical CPUs detected at startup. It's also possible to override this choice at runtime. When the number of tasks exceeds the number of threads -- which is likely -- the scheduler multiplexes the tasks onto threads.^[ This is an M:N scheduler, which is known to give suboptimal results for CPU-bound concurrency problems. In such cases, running with the same number of threads and tasks can yield better results. Rust has M:N scheduling in order to support very large numbers of tasks in contexts where threads are too resource-intensive to use in large number. The cost of threads varies substantially per operating system, and is sometimes quite low, so this flexibility is not always worth exploiting.]
Communication between tasks
Rust tasks are isolated and generally unable to interfere with one another's memory directly,
except through unsafe
code.
All contact between tasks is mediated by safe forms of ownership transfer,
and data races on memory are prohibited by the type system.
Inter-task communication and co-ordination facilities are provided in the standard library. These include:
- synchronous and asynchronous communication channels with various communication topologies
- read-only and read-write shared variables with various safe mutual exclusion patterns
- simple locks and semaphores
When such facilities carry values, the values are restricted to the Send
type-kind.
Restricting communication interfaces to this kind ensures that no borrowed or managed pointers move between tasks.
Thus access to an entire data structure can be mediated through its owning "root" value;
no further locking or copying is required to avoid data races within the substructure of such a value.
Task lifecycle
The lifecycle of a task consists of a finite set of states and events that cause transitions between the states. The lifecycle states of a task are:
- running
- blocked
- failing
- dead
A task begins its lifecycle -- once it has been spawned -- in the running state. In this state it executes the statements of its entry function, and any functions called by the entry function.
A task may transition from the running state to the blocked state any time it makes a blocking communication call. When the call can be completed -- when a message arrives at a sender, or a buffer opens to receive a message -- then the blocked task will unblock and transition back to running.
A task may transition to the failing state at any time, due being
killed by some external event or internally, from the evaluation of a
fail!()
macro. Once failing, a task unwinds its stack and
transitions to the dead state. Unwinding the stack of a task is done by
the task itself, on its own control stack. If a value with a destructor is
freed during unwinding, the code for the destructor is run, also on the task's
control stack. Running the destructor code causes a temporary transition to a
running state, and allows the destructor code to cause any subsequent
state transitions. The original task of unwinding and failing thereby may
suspend temporarily, and may involve (recursive) unwinding of the stack of a
failed destructor. Nonetheless, the outermost unwinding activity will continue
until the stack is unwound and the task transitions to the dead
state. There is no way to "recover" from task failure. Once a task has
temporarily suspended its unwinding in the failing state, failure
occurring from within this destructor results in hard failure. The
unwinding procedure of hard failure frees resources but does not execute
destructors. The original (soft) failure is still resumed at the point where
it was temporarily suspended.
A task in the dead state cannot transition to other states; it exists only to have its termination status inspected by other tasks, and/or to await reclamation when the last reference to it drops.
Task scheduling
The currently scheduled task is given a finite time slice in which to execute, after which it is descheduled at a loop-edge or similar preemption point, and another task within is scheduled, pseudo-randomly.
An executing task can yield control at any time, by making a library call to
std::task::yield
, which deschedules it immediately. Entering any other
non-executing state (blocked, dead) similarly deschedules the task.
Runtime services, linkage and debugging
The Rust runtime is a relatively compact collection of C++ and Rust code that provides fundamental services and datatypes to all Rust tasks at run-time. It is smaller and simpler than many modern language runtimes. It is tightly integrated into the language's execution model of memory, tasks, communication and logging.
Note: The runtime library will merge with the
std
library in future versions of Rust.
Memory allocation
The runtime memory-management system is based on a service-provider interface,
through which the runtime requests blocks of memory from its environment
and releases them back to its environment when they are no longer needed.
The default implementation of the service-provider interface
consists of the C runtime functions malloc
and free
.
The runtime memory-management system, in turn, supplies Rust tasks with facilities for allocating, extending and releasing stacks, as well as allocating and freeing heap data.
Built in types
The runtime provides C and Rust code to assist with various built-in types, such as vectors, strings, and the low level communication system (ports, channels, tasks).
Support for other built-in types such as simple types, tuples, records, and enums is open-coded by the Rust compiler.
Task scheduling and communication
The runtime provides code to manage inter-task communication. This includes the system of task-lifecycle state transitions depending on the contents of queues, as well as code to copy values between queues and their recipients and to serialize values for transmission over operating-system inter-process communication facilities.
Logging system
The runtime contains a system for directing logging expressions to a logging console and/or internal logging buffers. Logging can be enabled per module.
Logging output is enabled by setting the RUST_LOG
environment
variable. RUST_LOG
accepts a logging specification made up of a
comma-separated list of paths, with optional log levels. For each
module containing log expressions, if RUST_LOG
contains the path to
that module or a parent of that module, then logs of the appropriate
level will be output to the console.
The path to a module consists of the crate name, any parent modules,
then the module itself, all separated by double colons (::
). The
optional log level can be appended to the module path with an equals
sign (=
) followed by the log level, from 1 to 4, inclusive. Level 1
is the error level, 2 is warning, 3 info, and 4 debug. You can also
use the symbolic constants error
, warn
, info
, and debug
. Any
logs less than or equal to the specified level will be output. If not
specified then log level 4 is assumed. Debug messages can be omitted
by passing --cfg ndebug
to rustc
.
As an example, to see all the logs generated by the compiler, you would set
RUST_LOG
to rustc
, which is the crate name (as specified in its link
attribute). To narrow down the logs to just crate resolution,
you would set it to rustc::metadata::creader
. To see just error logging
use rustc=0
.
Note that when compiling source files that don't specify a
crate name the crate is given a default name that matches the source file,
with the extension removed. In that case, to turn on logging for a program
compiled from, e.g. helloworld.rs
, RUST_LOG
should be set to helloworld
.
As a convenience, the logging spec can also be set to a special pseudo-crate,
::help
. In this case, when the application starts, the runtime will
simply output a list of loaded modules containing log expressions, then exit.
The Rust runtime itself generates logging information. The runtime's logs are
generated for a number of artificial modules in the ::rt
pseudo-crate,
and can be enabled just like the logs for any standard module. The full list
of runtime logging modules follows.
::rt::mem
Memory management::rt::comm
Messaging and task communication::rt::task
Task management::rt::dom
Task scheduling::rt::trace
Unused::rt::cache
Type descriptor cache::rt::upcall
Compiler-generated runtime calls::rt::timer
The scheduler timer::rt::gc
Garbage collection::rt::stdlib
Functions used directly by the standard library::rt::kern
The runtime kernel::rt::backtrace
Log a backtrace on task failure::rt::callback
Unused
Logging Expressions
Rust provides several macros to log information. Here's a simple Rust program that demonstrates all four of them:
fn main() {
error!("This is an error log")
warn!("This is a warn log")
info!("this is an info log")
debug!("This is a debug log")
}
These four log levels correspond to levels 1-4, as controlled by RUST_LOG
:
$ RUST_LOG=rust=3 ./rust
rust: ~"\"This is an error log\""
rust: ~"\"This is a warn log\""
rust: ~"\"this is an info log\""
Appendix: Rationales and design tradeoffs
TODO.
Appendix: Influences and further references
Influences
The essential problem that must be solved in making a fault-tolerant software system is therefore that of fault-isolation. Different programmers will write different modules, some modules will be correct, others will have errors. We do not want the errors in one module to adversely affect the behaviour of a module which does not have any errors.
— Joe Armstrong
In our approach, all data is private to some process, and processes can only communicate through communications channels. Security, as used in this paper, is the property which guarantees that processes in a system cannot affect each other except by explicit communication.
When security is absent, nothing which can be proven about a single module in isolation can be guaranteed to hold when that module is embedded in a system [...]
— Robert Strom and Shaula Yemini
Concurrent and applicative programming complement each other. The ability to send messages on channels provides I/O without side effects, while the avoidance of shared data helps keep concurrent processes from colliding.
— Rob Pike
Rust is not a particularly original language. It may however appear unusual by contemporary standards, as its design elements are drawn from a number of "historical" languages that have, with a few exceptions, fallen out of favour. Five prominent lineages contribute the most, though their influences have come and gone during the course of Rust's development:
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The NIL (1981) and Hermes (1990) family. These languages were developed by Robert Strom, Shaula Yemini, David Bacon and others in their group at IBM Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY, USA).
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The Erlang (1987) language, developed by Joe Armstrong, Robert Virding, Claes Wikström, Mike Williams and others in their group at the Ericsson Computer Science Laboratory (Älvsjö, Stockholm, Sweden) .
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The Sather (1990) language, developed by Stephen Omohundro, Chu-Cheow Lim, Heinz Schmidt and others in their group at The International Computer Science Institute of the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA, USA).
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The Newsqueak (1988), Alef (1995), and Limbo (1996) family. These languages were developed by Rob Pike, Phil Winterbottom, Sean Dorward and others in their group at Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research Center (Murray Hill, NJ, USA).
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The Napier (1985) and Napier88 (1988) family. These languages were developed by Malcolm Atkinson, Ron Morrison and others in their group at the University of St. Andrews (St. Andrews, Fife, UK).
Additional specific influences can be seen from the following languages:
- The stack-growth implementation of Go.
- The structural algebraic types and compilation manager of SML.
- The attribute and assembly systems of C#.
- The references and deterministic destructor system of C++.
- The memory region systems of the ML Kit and Cyclone.
- The typeclass system of Haskell.
- The lexical identifier rule of Python.
- The block syntax of Ruby.