Implicit calls to `deref` and `deref_mut` are a footgun with raw pointers
Nobody has claimed this yet.
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Description
I tried this code (which models library code with invariants for all valid instances of A but without all the details):
use std::ops::Deref;
use std::mem::MaybeUninit;
struct A{
b: MaybeUninit<B>,
}
struct B{
field: String,
}
impl Deref for A {
type Target = B;
fn deref(&self)->&B{
println!("Called deref!");
// SAFETY
// This deref is expected to be called only outside of the current module and field b is private
// so as long as all instances of A have it initialized before being accessible outside,
// this code is sound.
unsafe {
self.b.assume_init_ref()
}
}
}
// Note: while this is `main`, it is intended to show code that used for
// initialization of new instance of A. I omitted wrapping of A in a module
// and using separate factory method for brewity.
fn main() {
let mut a: MaybeUninit<A> = MaybeUninit::uninit();
unsafe {
let p = a.as_ptr();
// The only way to get pointer to field of pointee.
let b_ptr = &raw const (*p).b;
// However, it may cause unintended calls to a deref if we are not vigilant
// and mistakenly type name of a field of a type our pointee dereferences to.
let field_ptr = &raw const (*p).field;
}
}
I expected to see this happen: this code should be rejected because it causes implicit calls to Deref::deref which assumes *p to be initialized.
Instead, this happened: code compiles and prints Called deref! when executed.
Meta
rustc --version --verbose:
rustc 1.84.0-nightly (9322d183f 2024-10-14)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: 9322d183f45e0fd5a509820874cc5ff27744a479
commit-date: 2024-10-14
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
release: 1.84.0-nightly
LLVM version: 19.1.1
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
No source files or tests are named. Begin by reproducing the provided Rust example, then trace the compiler handling of raw-pointer field access and implicit Deref calls; done requires a decided language or compiler behavior and validation for this case.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- compilers
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100