rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-clippy
rc_buffer lint is dangerous as it changes runtime behaviour
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Description
clippy warns if one tries to use a type like Rc<Vec<T>>, e.g.
Arc<Vec<u8>>
^^^^^^^^^^^^ help: try: `Arc<[u8]>`
This is dangerous as creating a Rc<[T]> causes a memcpy of the whole memory area with all the elements, while creating an Rc<Vec<T>> simply copies over the 3 pointers inside the Vec without copying all the elements.
A better suggestion would probably be Rc<Box<[T]>> as that has the same runtime behaviour, but even independent of that it can be useful to have a Vec inside an Rc / Arc in combination with the make_mut() / get_mut() API.
The lint should probably be at least disabled by default.
The same also applies to Rc<String> vs Rc<str>.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reading the rc_buffer lint implementation and its existing tests, then reproduce the Arc<Vec> and Rc cases described in the issue. Compare the suggested replacements with Vec/String mutation behavior and make the lint's behavior match the intended runtime semantics; update coverage so the relevant cases are verified.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- tooling
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100