Make `Rc<T>::deref` and `Arc<T>::deref` zero-cost #132553

EFanZh · 2024-11-03T07:48:34Z

Currently, Rc<T> and Arc<T> store pointers to RcInner<T> and ArcInner<T>. This PR changes the pointers so that they point to T directly instead.

This is based on the assumption that we access the T value more frequently than accessing reference counts. With this change, accessing the data can be done without offsetting pointers from RcInner<T> and ArcInner<T> to their contained data. This change might also enables some possibly useful future optimizations, such as:

Convert &[Rc<T>] into &[&T] within O(1) time.
Convert &[Rc<T>] into Vec<&T> utilizing memcpy.
Convert &Option<Rc<T>> into Option<&T> without branching.
Make Rc<T> and Arc<T> FFI compatible types where T: Sized.

rustbot · 2024-11-03T07:48:42Z

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marmeladema · 2024-11-03T09:22:09Z

Would it potentially enable those types to have an ffi compatible ABI? So that they could be returned and passed directly from /to ffi function, like Box?

EFanZh · 2024-11-03T10:36:08Z

Would it potentially enable those types to have an ffi compatible ABI? So that they could be returned and passed directly from /to ffi function, like Box?

I think in theory it is possible, at least for sized types, but I am not familiar with how to formally make it so.

jhpratt · 2024-11-03T23:07:24Z

r? libs

joboet · 2024-11-07T16:17:52Z

@EFanZh Is this ready for review? If so, please un-draft the PR.

EFanZh · 2024-11-07T17:12:22Z

@joboet: The source code part is mostly done, but I haven’t finished updating LLDB and CDB pretty printers. The CI doesn’t seem to run those tests.

joboet · 2024-11-08T12:56:42Z

No worries! I just didn't want to keep you waiting in case you had forgotten to change the state.
@rustbot author

scottmcm

Thanks for tackling this, and especially finding a way to keep the debug visualizers working.

It generally looks good to me, though TBH my eyes are starting to glaze over a bit after multiple 3k-line files. I've left a bunch of thoughts as I was going along, most of them should be hopefully easy or don't actually need anything this PR.

The one big one is https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/132553/files#r2008914982 about how best to handle what's essentially the strategy pattern here. Don't take that as an immutable directive, though, I'd be happy to discuss how best to handle the thoughts I had there.

(And if you wouldn't mind, it'd be great to find some useful file splits for the raw_rc file -- can any of it be split out to help people review in chunks?)

library/alloc/src/raw_rc/raw_weak.rs

thaliaarchi

I don't have any substantial feedback, because it's a lot of code and I haven't done comparisons between what was deleted in Rc<T> and Arc<T> and the new code. But I'm excited for this change and it looks generally good!

But the largest thing that stands out to me is that there's a lot of tiny functions. Although they have descriptive names and are documented, it made it somewhat harder to follow for me. For the ones used only once, it might make sense to inline them for readability.

library/alloc/src/raw_rc/mod.rs

library/alloc/src/raw_rc/raw_rc.rs

joboet

This will take some time to review, sorry. Some initial comments:

joboet · 2025-03-27T15:02:50Z

library/alloc/src/raw_rc/mod.rs

+
+/// Creates an allocator of type `A`, then tries to allocate a chunk of reference-counted memory
+/// that is described by `rc_layout`.
+fn try_allocate_uninit<A, const STRONG_COUNT: usize>(


Do you have a particular reason for making this a separate function instead of just passing Global into the generic function?

This is because passing a ZST is zero-cost, but passing a reference to a ZST is not. I assumed that most of the time, the allocator will the ZST type Global, so if for some reason (maybe with opt-level=z) this function is not inlined into caller, caller does’t have to pay for passing an allocator.

Another reason is that if A::default is not a trivial function, code for constructing an allocator could be potentially shared by all callers, so that the binary sized could benefit from this.

joboet · 2025-03-27T15:04:24Z

library/alloc/src/raw_rc/rc_layout.rs

+impl Deref for RcLayout {
+    type Target = Layout;
+
+    fn deref(&self) -> &Self::Target {
+        &self.0
+    }
+}


This is never really a good idea, RcLayout isn't a smart pointer.

I have replaced dereference with a get function.

joboet · 2025-03-27T15:05:14Z

library/alloc/src/raw_rc/rc_layout.rs

+pub(crate) trait RcLayoutExt {
+    /// Computes `RcLayout` at compile time if `Self` is `Sized`.
+    const RC_LAYOUT: RcLayout;
+}
+
+impl<T> RcLayoutExt for T {
+    const RC_LAYOUT: RcLayout = match RcLayout::try_from_value_layout(T::LAYOUT) {
+        Ok(rc_layout) => rc_layout,
+        Err(_) => panic!("value is too big to store in a reference-counted allocation"),
+    };
+}


Inline const is stable, would that be an alternative here?

T::RC_LAYOUT is used in multiple places, I think making it an associated const could potentially avoid calculating it multiple times. This trait has a similar role as the core::mem::SizedTypeProperties trait.

library/alloc/src/raw_rc/rc_layout.rs

EFanZh · 2025-03-29T15:31:25Z

But the largest thing that stands out to me is that there's a lot of tiny functions. Although they have descriptive names and are documented, it made it somewhat harder to follow for me. For the ones used only once, it might make sense to inline them for readability.

@thaliaarchi: Do you mean the allocation functions? I have checked those functions, most functions are used more than once, and the function that are used once are used for unifying non-generic codes used in generic functions.

@rustbot ready

bors · 2025-03-29T23:36:36Z

☔ The latest upstream changes (presumably #133572) made this pull request unmergeable. Please resolve the merge conflicts.

rustbot assigned jhpratt Nov 3, 2024

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Make Rc<T>::deref and Arc<T>::deref zero-cost

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Make `Rc<T>::deref` and `Arc<T>::deref` zero-cost #132553

Make `Rc<T>::deref` and `Arc<T>::deref` zero-cost #132553

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bors commented Mar 29, 2025

Make Rc<T>::deref and Arc<T>::deref zero-cost #132553

Are you sure you want to change the base?

Make Rc<T>::deref and Arc<T>::deref zero-cost #132553

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bors commented Mar 29, 2025

Make `Rc<T>::deref` and `Arc<T>::deref` zero-cost #132553

Make `Rc<T>::deref` and `Arc<T>::deref` zero-cost #132553

EFanZh commented Nov 3, 2024 •

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