---
slug: 2019/02/a-heaping-helping
title: "Allocations in Rust: Dynamic memory"
date: 2019-02-07 12:00:00
authors: [bspeice]
tags: []
---

Managing dynamic memory is hard. Some languages assume users will do it themselves (C, C++), and
some languages go to extreme lengths to protect users from themselves (Java, Python). In Rust, how
the language uses dynamic memory (also referred to as the **heap**) is a system called _ownership_.
And as the docs mention, ownership
[is Rust's most unique feature](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch04-00-understanding-ownership.html).

The heap is used in two situations; when the compiler is unable to predict either the _total size of
memory needed_, or _how long the memory is needed for_, it allocates space in the heap.

<!-- truncate -->

This happens
pretty frequently; if you want to download the Google home page, you won't know how large it is
until your program runs. And when you're finished with Google, we deallocate the memory so it can be
used to store other webpages. If you're interested in a slightly longer explanation of the heap,
check out
[The Stack and the Heap](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch04-01-what-is-ownership.html#the-stack-and-the-heap)
in Rust's documentation.

We won't go into detail on how the heap is managed; the
[ownership documentation](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch04-01-what-is-ownership.html) does a
phenomenal job explaining both the "why" and "how" of memory management. Instead, we're going to
focus on understanding "when" heap allocations occur in Rust.

To start off, take a guess for how many allocations happen in the program below:

```rust
fn main() {}
```

It's obviously a trick question; while no heap allocations occur as a result of that code, the setup
needed to call `main` does allocate on the heap. Here's a way to show it:

```rust
#![feature(integer_atomics)]
use std::alloc::{GlobalAlloc, Layout, System};
use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicU64, Ordering};

static ALLOCATION_COUNT: AtomicU64 = AtomicU64::new(0);

struct CountingAllocator;

unsafe impl GlobalAlloc for CountingAllocator {
    unsafe fn alloc(&self, layout: Layout) -> *mut u8 {
        ALLOCATION_COUNT.fetch_add(1, Ordering::SeqCst);
        System.alloc(layout)
    }

    unsafe fn dealloc(&self, ptr: *mut u8, layout: Layout) {
        System.dealloc(ptr, layout);
    }
}

#[global_allocator]
static A: CountingAllocator = CountingAllocator;

fn main() {
    let x = ALLOCATION_COUNT.fetch_add(0, Ordering::SeqCst);
    println!("There were {} allocations before calling main!", x);
}
```

--
[Rust Playground](https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=nightly&mode=debug&edition=2018&gist=fb5060025ba79fc0f906b65a4ef8eb8e)

As of the time of writing, there are five allocations that happen before `main` is ever called.

But when we want to understand more practically where heap allocation happens, we'll follow this
guide:

- Smart pointers hold their contents in the heap
- Collections are smart pointers for many objects at a time, and reallocate when they need to grow

Finally, there are two "addendum" issues that are important to address when discussing Rust and the
heap:

- Non-heap alternatives to many standard library types are available.
- Special allocators to track memory behavior should be used to benchmark code.

## Smart pointers

The first thing to note are the "smart pointer" types. When you have data that must outlive the
scope in which it is declared, or your data is of unknown or dynamic size, you'll make use of these
types.

The term [smart pointer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_pointer) comes from C++, and while it's
closely linked to a general design pattern of
["Resource Acquisition Is Initialization"](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/raii), we'll
use it here specifically to describe objects that are responsible for managing ownership of data
allocated on the heap. The smart pointers available in the `alloc` crate should look mostly
familiar:

- [`Box`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/alloc/boxed/struct.Box.html)
- [`Rc`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/alloc/rc/struct.Rc.html)
- [`Arc`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/alloc/sync/struct.Arc.html)
- [`Cow`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/alloc/borrow/enum.Cow.html)

The [standard library](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/) also defines some smart pointers to manage
heap objects, though more than can be covered here. Some examples are:

- [`RwLock`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/struct.RwLock.html)
- [`Mutex`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/struct.Mutex.html)

Finally, there is one ["gotcha"](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gotcha): **cell types**
(like [`RefCell`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/core/cell/struct.RefCell.html)) look and behave
similarly, but **don't involve heap allocation**. The
[`core::cell` docs](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/core/cell/index.html) have more information.

When a smart pointer is created, the data it is given is placed in heap memory and the location of
that data is recorded in the smart pointer. Once the smart pointer has determined it's safe to
deallocate that memory (when a `Box` has
[gone out of scope](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/boxed/index.html) or a reference count
[goes to zero](https://doc.rust-lang.org/alloc/rc/index.html)), the heap space is reclaimed. We can
prove these types use heap memory by looking at code:

```rust
use std::rc::Rc;
use std::sync::Arc;
use std::borrow::Cow;

pub fn my_box() {
    // Drop at assembly line 1640
    Box::new(0);
}

pub fn my_rc() {
    // Drop at assembly line 1650
    Rc::new(0);
}

pub fn my_arc() {
    // Drop at assembly line 1660
    Arc::new(0);
}

pub fn my_cow() {
    // Drop at assembly line 1672
    Cow::from("drop");
}
```

-- [Compiler Explorer](https://godbolt.org/z/4AMQug)

## Collections

Collection types use heap memory because their contents have dynamic size; they will request more
memory [when needed](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/vec/struct.Vec.html#method.reserve), and can
[release memory](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/vec/struct.Vec.html#method.shrink_to_fit) when it's
no longer necessary. This dynamic property forces Rust to heap allocate everything they contain. In
a way, **collections are smart pointers for many objects at a time**. Common types that fall under
this umbrella are [`Vec`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/alloc/vec/struct.Vec.html),
[`HashMap`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/collections/struct.HashMap.html), and
[`String`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/alloc/string/struct.String.html) (not
[`str`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/primitive.str.html)).

While collections store the objects they own in heap memory, _creating new collections will not
allocate on the heap_. This is a bit weird; if we call `Vec::new()`, the assembly shows a
corresponding call to `real_drop_in_place`:

```rust
pub fn my_vec() {
    // Drop in place at line 481
    Vec::<u8>::new();
}
```

-- [Compiler Explorer](https://godbolt.org/z/1WkNtC)

But because the vector has no elements to manage, no calls to the allocator will ever be dispatched:

```rust
use std::alloc::{GlobalAlloc, Layout, System};
use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicBool, Ordering};

fn main() {
    // Turn on panicking if we allocate on the heap
    DO_PANIC.store(true, Ordering::SeqCst);

    // Interesting bit happens here
    let x: Vec<u8> = Vec::new();
    drop(x);

    // Turn panicking back off, some deallocations occur
    // after main as well.
    DO_PANIC.store(false, Ordering::SeqCst);
}

#[global_allocator]
static A: PanicAllocator = PanicAllocator;
static DO_PANIC: AtomicBool = AtomicBool::new(false);
struct PanicAllocator;

unsafe impl GlobalAlloc for PanicAllocator {
    unsafe fn alloc(&self, layout: Layout) -> *mut u8 {
        if DO_PANIC.load(Ordering::SeqCst) {
            panic!("Unexpected allocation.");
        }
        System.alloc(layout)
    }

    unsafe fn dealloc(&self, ptr: *mut u8, layout: Layout) {
        if DO_PANIC.load(Ordering::SeqCst) {
            panic!("Unexpected deallocation.");
        }
        System.dealloc(ptr, layout);
    }
}
```

--
[Rust Playground](https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=stable&mode=debug&edition=2018&gist=831a297d176d015b1f9ace01ae416cc6)

Other standard library types follow the same behavior; make sure to check out
[`HashMap::new()`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/collections/hash_map/struct.HashMap.html#method.new),
and [`String::new()`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/string/struct.String.html#method.new).

## Heap Alternatives

While it is a bit strange to speak of the stack after spending time with the heap, it's worth
pointing out that some heap-allocated objects in Rust have stack-based counterparts provided by
other crates. If you have need of the functionality, but want to avoid allocating, there are
typically alternatives available.

When it comes to some standard library smart pointers
([`RwLock`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/struct.RwLock.html) and
[`Mutex`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/sync/struct.Mutex.html)), stack-based alternatives are
provided in crates like [parking_lot](https://crates.io/crates/parking_lot) and
[spin](https://crates.io/crates/spin). You can check out
[`lock_api::RwLock`](https://docs.rs/lock_api/0.1.5/lock_api/struct.RwLock.html),
[`lock_api::Mutex`](https://docs.rs/lock_api/0.1.5/lock_api/struct.Mutex.html), and
[`spin::Once`](https://mvdnes.github.io/rust-docs/spin-rs/spin/struct.Once.html) if you're in need
of synchronization primitives.

[thread_id](https://crates.io/crates/thread-id) may be necessary if you're implementing an allocator
because [`thread::current().id()`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/thread/struct.ThreadId.html) uses a
[`thread_local!` structure](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/src/std/sys_common/thread_info.rs.html#17-36)
that needs heap allocation.

## Tracing Allocators

When writing performance-sensitive code, there's no alternative to measuring your code. If you
didn't write a benchmark,
[you don't care about it's performance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EWejmkKlxs&feature=youtu.be&t=263)
You should never rely on your instincts when
[a microsecond is an eternity](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH1Tta7purM).

Similarly, there's great work going on in Rust with allocators that keep track of what they're doing
(like [`alloc_counter`](https://crates.io/crates/alloc_counter)). When it comes to tracking heap
behavior, it's easy to make mistakes; please write tests and make sure you have tools to guard
against future issues.
