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<!doctype html><html lang=en dir=ltr class="blog-wrapper blog-post-page plugin-blog plugin-id-default" data-has-hydrated=false><meta charset=UTF-8><meta name=generator content="Docusaurus v3.6.1"><title data-rh=true>Allocations in Rust: Foreword | The Old Speice Guy</title><meta data-rh=true name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0"><meta data-rh=true name=twitter:card content=summary_large_image><meta data-rh=true property=og:url content=https://speice.io/2019/02/understanding-allocations-in-rust><meta data-rh=true property=og:locale content=en><meta data-rh=true name=docusaurus_locale content=en><meta data-rh=true name=docusaurus_tag content=default><meta data-rh=true name=docsearch:language content=en><meta data-rh=true name=docsearch:docusaurus_tag content=default><meta data-rh=true property=og:title content="Allocations in Rust: Foreword | The Old Speice Guy"><meta data-rh=true name=description content="There's an alchemy of distilling complex technical topics 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authorDetails_lV9A"><div class=avatar__name><span class=authorName_yefp>Bradlee Speice</span></div><div class=authorSocials_rSDt><a href=https://github.com/bspeice target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer" class=authorSocialLink_owbf title=GitHub><svg viewBox="0 0 256 250" width=1em height=1em class="authorSocialLink_owbf githubSvg_Uu4N" style=--dark:#000;--light:#fff preserveAspectRatio=xMidYMid><path d="M128.001 0C57.317 0 0 57.307 0 128.001c0 56.554 36.676 104.535 87.535 121.46 6.397 1.185 8.746-2.777 8.746-6.158 0-3.052-.12-13.135-.174-23.83-35.61 7.742-43.124-15.103-43.124-15.103-5.823-14.795-14.213-18.73-14.213-18.73-11.613-7.944.876-7.78.876-7.78 12.853.902 19.621 13.19 19.621 13.19 11.417 19.568 29.945 13.911 37.249 10.64 1.149-8.272 4.466-13.92 8.127-17.116-28.431-3.236-58.318-14.212-58.318-63.258 0-13.975 5-25.394 13.188-34.358-1.329-3.224-5.71-16.242 1.24-33.874 0 0 10.749-3.44 35.21 13.121 10.21-2.836 21.16-4.258 32.038-4.307 10.878.049 21.837 1.47 32.066 4.307 24.431-16.56 35.165-13.12 35.165-13.12 6.967 17.63 2.584 30.65 1.255 33.873 8.207 8.964 13.173 20.383 13.173 34.358 0 49.163-29.944 59.988-58.447 63.157 4.591 3.972 8.682 11.762 8.682 23.704 0 17.126-.148 30.91-.148 35.126 0 3.407 2.304 7.398 8.792 6.14C219.37 232.5 256 184.537 256 128.002 256 57.307 198.691 0 128.001 0Zm-80.06 182.34c-.282.636-1.283.827-2.194.39-.929-.417-1.45-1.284-1.15-1.922.276-.655 1.279-.838 2.205-.399.93.418 1.46 1.293 1.139 1.931Zm6.296 5.618c-.61.566-1.804.303-2.614-.591-.837-.892-.994-2.086-.375-2.66.63-.566 1.787-.301 2.626.591.838.903 1 2.088.363 2.66Zm4.32 7.188c-.785.545-2.067.034-2.86-1.104-.784-1.138-.784-2.503.017-3.05.795-.547 2.058-.055 2.861 1.075.782 1.157.782 2.522-.019 3.08Zm7.304 8.325c-.701.774-2.196.566-3.29-.49-1.119-1.032-1.43-2.496-.726-3.27.71-.776 2.213-.558 3.315.49 1.11 1.03 1.45 2.505.701 3.27Zm9.442 2.81c-.31 1.003-1.75 1.459-3.199 1.033-1.448-.439-2.395-1.613-2.103-2.626.301-1.01 1.747-1.484 3.207-1.028 1.446.436 2.396 1.602 2.095 2.622Zm10.744 1.193c.036 1.055-1.193 1.93-2.715 1.95-1.53.034-2.769-.82-2.786-1.86 0-1.065 1.202-1.932 2.733-1.958 1.522-.03 2.768.818 2.768 1.868Zm10.555-.405c.182 1.03-.875 2.088-2.387 2.37-1.485.271-2.861-.365-3.05-1.386-.184-1.056.893-2.114 2.376-2.387 1.514-.263 2.868.356 3.061 1.403Z"/></svg></a></div></div></div></div></div></header><div id=__blog-post-container class=markdown><p>There's an alchemy of distilling complex technical topics into articles and videos that change the
way programmers see the tools they interact with on a regular basis. I knew what a linker was, but
there's a staggering amount of complexity in between
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOfucXtyEsU" target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">the OS and <code>main()</code></a>. Rust programmers use the
<a href=https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/boxed/struct.Box.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>Box</code></a> type all the time, but there's a
rich history of the Rust language itself wrapped up in
<a href=https://manishearth.github.io/blog/2017/01/10/rust-tidbits-box-is-special/ target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">how special it is</a>.</p>
<p>In a similar vein, this series attempts to look at code and understand how memory is used; the
complex choreography of operating system, compiler, and program that frees you to focus on
functionality far-flung from frivolous book-keeping. The Rust compiler relieves a great deal of the
cognitive burden associated with memory management, but we're going to step into its world for a
while.</p>
<p>Let's learn a bit about memory in Rust.</p>
<hr>
<p>Rust's three defining features of
<a href=https://www.rust-lang.org/ target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">Performance, Reliability, and Productivity</a> are all driven to a great
degree by the how the Rust compiler understands memory usage. Unlike managed memory languages (Java,
Python), Rust
<a href=https://words.steveklabnik.com/borrow-checking-escape-analysis-and-the-generational-hypothesis target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">doesn't really</a>
garbage collect; instead, it uses an
<a href=https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch04-01-what-is-ownership.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">ownership</a> system to reason about
how long objects will last in your program. In some cases, if the life of an object is fairly
transient, Rust can make use of a very fast region called the "stack." When that's not possible,
Rust uses
<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_management#Dynamic_memory_allocation target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">dynamic (heap) memory</a>
and the ownership system to ensure you can't accidentally corrupt memory. It's not as fast, but it
is important to have available.</p>
<p>That said, there are specific situations in Rust where you'd never need to worry about the
stack/heap distinction! If you:</p>
<ol>
<li>Never use <code>unsafe</code></li>
<li>Never use <code>#![feature(alloc)]</code> or the <a href=https://doc.rust-lang.org/alloc/index.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>alloc</code> crate</a></li>
</ol>
<p>...then it's not possible for you to use dynamic memory!</p>
<p>For some uses of Rust, typically embedded devices, these constraints are OK. They have very limited
memory, and the program binary size itself may significantly affect what's available! There's no
operating system able to manage this
<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">"virtual memory"</a> thing, but that's not an issue
because there's only one running application. The
<a href=https://docs.rust-embedded.org/embedonomicon/preface.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">embedonomicon</a> is ever in mind, and
interacting with the "real world" through extra peripherals is accomplished by reading and writing
to <a href=https://bob.cs.sonoma.edu/IntroCompOrg-RPi/sec-gpio-mem.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">specific memory addresses</a>.</p>
<p>Most Rust programs find these requirements overly burdensome though. C++ developers would struggle
without access to <a href=https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container/vector target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>std::vector</code></a> (except those
hardcore no-STL people), and Rust developers would struggle without
<a href=https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/vec/struct.Vec.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>std::vec</code></a>. But with the constraints above,
<code>std::vec</code> is actually a part of the
<a href=https://doc.rust-lang.org/alloc/vec/struct.Vec.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>alloc</code> crate</a>, and thus off-limits. <code>Box</code>,
<code>Rc</code>, etc., are also unusable for the same reason.</p>
<p>Whether writing code for embedded devices or not, the important thing in both situations is how much
you know <em>before your application starts</em> about what its memory usage will look like. In embedded
devices, there's a small, fixed amount of memory to use. In a browser, you have no idea how large
<a href=https://www.google.com target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">google.com</a>'s home page is until you start trying to download it. The
compiler uses this knowledge (or lack thereof) to optimize how memory is used; put simply, your code
runs faster when the compiler can guarantee exactly how much memory your program needs while it's
running. This series is all about understanding how the compiler reasons about your program, with an
emphasis on the implications for performance.</p>
<p>Now let's address some conditions and caveats before going much further:</p>
<ul>
<li>We'll focus on "safe" Rust only; <code>unsafe</code> lets you use platform-specific allocation API's
(<a href=https://www.tutorialspoint.com/c_standard_library/c_function_malloc.htm target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer"><code>malloc</code></a>) that we'll
ignore.</li>
<li>We'll assume a "debug" build of Rust code (what you get with <code>cargo run</code> and <code>cargo test</code>) and
address (pun intended) release mode at the end (<code>cargo run --release</code> and <code>cargo test --release</code>).</li>
<li>All content will be run using Rust 1.32, as that's the highest currently supported in the
<a href=https://godbolt.org/ target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">Compiler Exporer</a>. As such, we'll avoid upcoming innovations like
<a href=https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/blob/master/text/0911-const-fn.md target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">compile-time evaluation of <code>static</code></a>
that are available in nightly.</li>
<li>Because of the nature of the content, being able to read assembly is helpful. We'll keep it
simple, but I <a href=https://stackoverflow.com/a/4584131/1454178 target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">found</a> a
<a href=https://stackoverflow.com/a/26026278/1454178 target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">refresher</a> on the <code>push</code> and <code>pop</code>
<a href=http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs216/guides/x86.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">instructions</a> was helpful while writing
this.</li>
<li>I've tried to be precise in saying only what I can prove using the tools (ASM, docs) that are
available, but if there's something said in error it will be corrected expeditiously. Please let
me know at <a href=mailto:bradlee@speice.io target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">bradlee@speice.io</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Finally, I'll do what I can to flag potential future changes but the Rust docs have a notice worth
repeating:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rust does not currently have a rigorously and formally defined memory model.</p>
<p>-- <a href=https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/ptr/fn.read_volatile.html target=_blank rel="noopener noreferrer">the docs</a></p>
</blockquote></div></article><nav class="pagination-nav docusaurus-mt-lg" aria-label="Blog post page navigation"><a class="pagination-nav__link pagination-nav__link--prev" href=/2018/12/allocation-safety><div class=pagination-nav__sublabel>Older post</div><div class=pagination-nav__label>QADAPT - debug_assert! for allocations</div></a><a class="pagination-nav__link pagination-nav__link--next" href=/2019/02/the-whole-world><div class=pagination-nav__sublabel>Newer post</div><div class=pagination-nav__label>Allocations in Rust: Global memory</div></a></nav></main></div></div></div><footer class=footer><div class="container container-fluid"><div class="footer__bottom text--center"><div class=footer__copyright>Copyright © 2024 Bradlee Speice</div></div></div></footer></div>