Re: [PATCH 3/7] rust: sync: allow coercion from `Arc<T>` to `Arc<U>`

[Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net>]

On Wed, 28 Dec 2022 06:03:42 +0000
Wedson Almeida Filho <wedsonaf@gmail.com> wrote:

> The coercion is only allowed if `U` is a compatible dynamically-sized
> type (DST). For example, if we have some type `X` that implements trait
> `Y`, then this allows `Arc<X>` to be coerced into `Arc<dyn Y>`.
> 
> Suggested-by: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net>
> Signed-off-by: Wedson Almeida Filho <wedsonaf@gmail.com>

Reviewed-by: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net>

> ---
>  rust/kernel/lib.rs      |  2 ++
>  rust/kernel/sync/arc.rs | 27 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
>  2 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/rust/kernel/lib.rs b/rust/kernel/lib.rs
> index 1a10f7c0ddd9..4bde65e7b06b 100644
> --- a/rust/kernel/lib.rs
> +++ b/rust/kernel/lib.rs
> @@ -13,8 +13,10 @@
>  
>  #![no_std]
>  #![feature(allocator_api)]
> +#![feature(coerce_unsized)]
>  #![feature(core_ffi_c)]
>  #![feature(receiver_trait)]
> +#![feature(unsize)]
>  
>  // Ensure conditional compilation based on the kernel configuration works;
>  // otherwise we may silently break things like initcall handling.
> diff --git a/rust/kernel/sync/arc.rs b/rust/kernel/sync/arc.rs
> index e2eb0e67d483..dbc7596cc3ce 100644
> --- a/rust/kernel/sync/arc.rs
> +++ b/rust/kernel/sync/arc.rs
> @@ -17,7 +17,11 @@
>  
>  use crate::{bindings, error::Result, types::Opaque};
>  use alloc::boxed::Box;
> -use core::{marker::PhantomData, ops::Deref, ptr::NonNull};
> +use core::{
> +    marker::{PhantomData, Unsize},
> +    ops::Deref,
> +    ptr::NonNull,
> +};
>  
>  /// A reference-counted pointer to an instance of `T`.
>  ///
> @@ -82,6 +86,23 @@ use core::{marker::PhantomData, ops::Deref, ptr::NonNull};
>  /// obj.use_reference();
>  /// obj.take_over();
>  /// ```
> +///
> +/// Coercion from `Arc<Example>` to `Arc<dyn MyTrait>`:
> +///
> +/// ```
> +/// use kernel::sync::Arc;
> +///
> +/// trait MyTrait {}
> +///
> +/// struct Example;
> +/// impl MyTrait for Example {}
> +///
> +/// // `obj` has type `Arc<Example>`.
> +/// let obj: Arc<Example> = Arc::try_new(Example)?;
> +///
> +/// // `coerced` has type `Arc<dyn MyTrait>`.
> +/// let coerced: Arc<dyn MyTrait> = obj;
> +/// ```
>  pub struct Arc<T: ?Sized> {
>      ptr: NonNull<ArcInner<T>>,
>      _p: PhantomData<ArcInner<T>>,
> @@ -96,6 +117,10 @@ struct ArcInner<T: ?Sized> {
>  // This is to allow [`Arc`] (and variants) to be used as the type of `self`.
>  impl<T: ?Sized> core::ops::Receiver for Arc<T> {}
>  
> +// This is to allow coercion from `Arc<T>` to `Arc<U>` if `T` can be converted to the
> +// dynamically-sized type (DST) `U`.
> +impl<T: ?Sized + Unsize<U>, U: ?Sized> core::ops::CoerceUnsized<Arc<U>> for Arc<T> {}
> +
>  // SAFETY: It is safe to send `Arc<T>` to another thread when the underlying `T` is `Sync` because
>  // it effectively means sharing `&T` (which is safe because `T` is `Sync`); additionally, it needs
>  // `T` to be `Send` because any thread that has an `Arc<T>` may ultimately access `T` directly, for