rust-lang / rust-lang/rfcs

Proposal: Ability for borrow checker to identify unused closure which takes ownership

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Description

Here is a simple example of a problem I have come across:

use std::path;
use std::fs;
use std::io::Write;

#[derive(Debug)]
enum FileError {
    Creation(path::PathBuf),
    Writing(path::PathBuf)
}

fn main() -> Result<(), FileError> {
    let file_path = path::PathBuf::from("/home/something.txt");

    let mut file =
        fs::File::create(&file_path)
        .map_err(|_e| FileError::Creation(file_path))?;

    file.write_all(&[b'a'])
    .map_err(|_e| FileError::Writing(file_path))?;

    Ok(())
}

The above code does not compile due to the move of file_path into the closure given to the first call to .map_err which is then used again in the second call to that function.

This is despite the fact that the early return means that in the event of File::create failing, the value is moved and then cannot be reused because of the early return. If File::create succeeds then this closure is never called.

Replacing this first call of .map_err with a pattern match and return statement does compile due to the fact that the value is never moved into a closure in the meantime.

use std::path;
use std::fs;
use std::io::Write;

#[derive(Debug)]
enum FileError {
    Creation(path::PathBuf),
    Writing(path::PathBuf)
}

fn main() -> Result<(), FileError> {
    let file_path = path::PathBuf::from("/home/something.txt");

    let mut file = match fs::File::create(&file_path) {
        Ok(file) => file,
        Err(_) => return Err(FileError::Creation(file_path)),
    };

    file.write_all(&[b'a'])
    .map_err(|_e| FileError::Writing(file_path))?;

    Ok(())
}

I'm not sure to what extent removing the error in the first case would require a special case written in, but it seems to me like inlining the closure would resolve this issue.

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Research direction

No implementation file or test is named. Start by reproducing the Rust example and compare the closure-based map_err calls with the equivalent match and early return; define the intended borrow-checker behavior and acceptance cases before identifying the compiler area to change.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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