Re: [PATCH 1/4] rust: alloc: implement `Borrow` and `BorrowMut` for `Vec`

From: Alexandre Courbot
Date: Fri Jun 13 2025 - 01:35:32 EST


On Wed Jun 4, 2025 at 4:34 PM JST, Benno Lossin wrote:
> On Mon Jun 2, 2025 at 3:13 AM CEST, Alexandre Courbot wrote:
>> Hi Benno,
>>
>> On Mon Jun 2, 2025 at 1:11 AM JST, Benno Lossin wrote:
>>> On Sun Jun 1, 2025 at 5:00 AM CEST, Alexandre Courbot wrote:
>>>> Implement these two common traits, which allow generic types to store
>>>> either an owned value or a reference to it.
>>>
>>> I don't understand the second part of the sentence.
>>
>> I want to say that Borrow allows you to do something like:
>>
>> struct Foo<B: Borrow<u32>>(B);
>>
>> // `foo1` owns its value...
>> let foo1 = Foo(0x12);
>>
>> let i = 0x24;
>> // ... but `foo2` just borrows it, subject to the lifetime of `i`.
>> let foo2 = Foo(&i);
>>
>> And the implementations in this series also let you do:
>>
>> // `foo3`'s value is owned, but heap-allocated
>> let foo3 = Arc::new(KBox::new(0x56, GFP_KERNEL)?);
>>
>> let j = Arc::new(0x78, GFP_KERNEL)?;
>> // `foo4`'s value is shared and its lifetime runtime-managed.
>> let foo4 = Foo(j.clone());
>
> How about something like:
>
> Implement `Borrow<[T]>` and `BorrowMut<[T]>` for `Vec<T>`. This allows
> `Vec<T>` to be used in generic APIs asking for types implementing those
> traits. `[T; N]` and `&mut [T]` also implement those traits allowing
> users to use either owned, borrowed and heap-owned values.

This is super clear, and I think I'll just reuse this message as-is if
that's ok with you. Thanks!