[WIP] ReadOnly

[joshlf]

---

• 👉 [WIP] ReadOnly #2866
• 　 Simplify MutationCompatible impls #2867
• 　 [pointer] Add generic projection/cast framework #2860

Latest Update: v2 — Compare vs v1

📚 Full Patch History

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Version	v1	Base
v2	vs v1	vs Base
v1		vs Base

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello @joshlf, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request introduces a new ReadOnly<T> wrapper type designed to enforce read-only access to its inner value, integrating it deeply into the existing type system for low-level memory and pointer manipulation. It also lays the groundwork for handling projections through wrapped types by defining new Wrapped and HasWrappedField traits, which are then implemented for ReadOnly<T> as well as standard library types like MaybeUninit and Wrapping. This work is currently in progress, as indicated by the [WIP] title and numerous TODO comments, signifying that further documentation and safety considerations are pending.

Highlights

• Introduction of ReadOnly: A new #[repr(transparent)] struct ReadOnly<T> is added, intended to provide a read-only view of an underlying type T. This wrapper is designed to integrate seamlessly with the existing type system for low-level memory and pointer manipulation.
• New Pointer Casting Traits: The src/pointer/mod.rs file introduces new unsafe traits, Wrapped and HasWrappedField, which are crucial for facilitating advanced casting and projection operations involving wrapped types. These traits define how to 'unwrap' a type and how to project fields within wrapped structures.
• Integration with Existing Type System: ReadOnly<T> is extensively integrated with various existing traits, including KnownLayout, Unaligned, TryFromBytes, FromZeros, FromBytes, IntoBytes, Immutable, SizeEq, and TransmuteFrom. It also implements the newly introduced Wrapped and HasWrappedField traits, ensuring its compatibility and utility within the framework.
• Standard Library Type Support: The new Wrapped and HasWrappedField traits are implemented for standard library types such as MaybeUninit<T> and Wrapping<T>, demonstrating their general applicability and laying the groundwork for consistent handling of wrapped data structures.

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[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request introduces a new ReadOnly<T> wrapper type. While it's a work in progress, there are two critical issues with the current implementation that need to be addressed. First, ReadOnly<T> incorrectly implements DerefMut, which contradicts its purpose and allows mutation of the wrapped data. Second, it has an unsound unconditional unsafe impl of the Immutable trait, which can lead to undefined behavior by violating one of the core safety invariants of zerocopy. I've provided detailed comments and suggestions for both of these critical issues.

[gemini-code-assist]

The unconditional unsafe impl<T: ?Sized> Immutable for ReadOnly<T> is unsound. The Immutable trait is a promise that the type has no interior mutability (i.e., no UnsafeCells). Since ReadOnly<T> is a #[repr(transparent)] wrapper, it will contain an UnsafeCell if T does. For example, if T is Cell<u8>, ReadOnly<Cell<u8>> would be marked Immutable despite containing an UnsafeCell. This violates a fundamental safety invariant of zerocopy and can lead to undefined behavior, for example when zerocopy performs unsynchronized reads on types it believes to be Immutable.

If ReadOnly<T> is intended to be Immutable, it must be bounded on T: Immutable. If it's intended to be used with types that are not Immutable, then ReadOnly<T> itself cannot be Immutable.

Suggested change

	// SAFETY: TODO
	const _: () = unsafe {
	unsafe_impl!(T: ?Sized => Immutable for ReadOnly<T>);
	};
	// SAFETY: `ReadOnly<T>` is a transparent wrapper over `T`. Thus, it is
	// `Immutable` if and only if `T` is.
	const _: () = unsafe {
	unsafe_impl!(T: ?Sized + Immutable => Immutable for ReadOnly<T>);
	};

[gemini-code-assist]

The ReadOnly<T> type must not implement DerefMut. The name ReadOnly strongly implies that the wrapped data cannot be mutated, but implementing DerefMut provides a mechanism to get a mutable reference to it, which completely subverts this expectation. This is a major correctness and API design issue. It allows mutating data that is supposed to be read-only, which can lead to unsoundness and violates the principle of least astonishment.

[codecov-commenter]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 0% with 23 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 91.52%. Comparing base (3e60851) to head (7ad85b6).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
src/wrappers.rs	0.00%	17 Missing ⚠️
src/pointer/mod.rs	0.00%	6 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@                              Coverage Diff                              @@
##           Gbec926233303ce55c894f8ba65c939dd42690530    #2866      +/-   ##
=============================================================================
- Coverage                                      91.89%   91.52%   -0.37%     
=============================================================================
  Files                                             20       20              
  Lines                                           5773     5796      +23     
=============================================================================
  Hits                                            5305     5305              
- Misses                                           468      491      +23     

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