auto merge of #15251 : AlisdairO/rust/master, r=alexcrichton

I've seen quite a bit of confusion around regarding the use of Rc, so I thought I'd take a stab at adding some examples.

Author: bors

src/liballoc/rc.rs

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// Copyright 2013 The Rust Project Developers. See the COPYRIGHT
+// Copyright 2013-2014 The Rust Project Developers. See the COPYRIGHT
 // file at the top-level directory of this distribution and at
 // http://rust-lang.org/COPYRIGHT.
 //
@@ -10,16 +10,141 @@
 
 /*! Task-local reference-counted boxes (`Rc` type)
 
-The `Rc` type provides shared ownership of an immutable value. Destruction is deterministic, and
-will occur as soon as the last owner is gone. It is marked as non-sendable because it avoids the
-overhead of atomic reference counting.
+The `Rc` type provides shared ownership of an immutable value. Destruction is
+deterministic, and will occur as soon as the last owner is gone. It is marked
+as non-sendable because it avoids the overhead of atomic reference counting.
 
-The `downgrade` method can be used to create a non-owning `Weak` pointer to the box. A `Weak`
-pointer can be upgraded to an `Rc` pointer, but will return `None` if the value has already been
-freed.
+The `downgrade` method can be used to create a non-owning `Weak` pointer to the
+box. A `Weak` pointer can be upgraded to an `Rc` pointer, but will return
+`None` if the value has already been freed.
 
-For example, a tree with parent pointers can be represented by putting the nodes behind `Strong`
-pointers, and then storing the parent pointers as `Weak` pointers.
+For example, a tree with parent pointers can be represented by putting the
+nodes behind strong `Rc` pointers, and then storing the parent pointers as
+`Weak` pointers.
+
+
+## Examples
+
+Consider a scenario where a set of Gadgets are owned by a given Owner.  We want
+to have our Gadgets point to their Owner.  We can't do this with unique
+ownership, because more than one gadget may belong to the same Owner.  Rc
+allows us to share an Owner between multiple Gadgets, and have the Owner kept
+alive as long as any Gadget points at it.
+
+```rust
+use std::rc::Rc;
+
+struct Owner {
+    name: String
+    // ...other fields
+}
+
+struct Gadget {
+    id: int,
+    owner: Rc<Owner>
+    // ...other fields
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    // Create a reference counted Owner.
+    let gadget_owner : Rc<Owner> = Rc::new(
+            Owner { name: String::from_str("Gadget Man") }
+    );
+
+    // Create Gadgets belonging to gadget_owner.  To increment the reference
+    // count we clone the Rc object.
+    let gadget1 = Gadget { id: 1, owner: gadget_owner.clone() };
+    let gadget2 = Gadget { id: 2, owner: gadget_owner.clone() };
+
+    drop(gadget_owner);
+
+    // Despite dropping gadget_owner, we're still able to print out the name of
+    // the Owner of the Gadgets. This is because we've only dropped the
+    // reference count object, not the Owner it wraps. As long as there are
+    // other Rc objects pointing at the same Owner, it will stay alive. Notice
+    // that the Rc wrapper around Gadget.owner gets automatically dereferenced
+    // for us.
+    println!("Gadget {} owned by {}", gadget1.id, gadget1.owner.name);
+    println!("Gadget {} owned by {}", gadget2.id, gadget2.owner.name);
+
+    // At the end of the method, gadget1 and gadget2 get destroyed, and with
+    // them the last counted references to our Owner.  Gadget Man now gets
+    // destroyed as well.
+}
+```
+
+If our requirements change, and we also need to be able to traverse from
+Owner->Gadget, we will run into problems: an Rc pointer from Owner->Gadget
+introduces a cycle between the objects.  This means that their reference counts
+can never reach 0, and the objects will stay alive: a memory leak.  In order to
+get around this, we can use `Weak` pointers.  These are reference counted
+pointers that don't keep an object alive if there are no normal `Rc` (or
+*strong*) pointers left.
+
+Rust actually makes it somewhat difficult to produce this loop in the first
+place: in order to end up with two objects that point at each other, one of
+them needs to be mutable.  This is problematic because Rc enforces memory
+safety by only giving out shared references to the object it wraps, and these
+don't allow direct mutation.  We need to wrap the part of the object we wish to
+mutate in a `RefCell`, which provides *interior mutability*: a method to
+achieve mutability through a shared reference.  `RefCell` enforces Rust's
+borrowing rules at runtime.  Read the `Cell` documentation for more details on
+interior mutability.
+
+```rust
+use std::rc::Rc;
+use std::rc::Weak;
+use std::cell::RefCell;
+
+struct Owner {
+    name: String,
+    gadgets: RefCell<Vec<Weak<Gadget>>>
+    // ...other fields
+}
+
+struct Gadget {
+    id: int,
+    owner: Rc<Owner>
+    // ...other fields
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    // Create a reference counted Owner.  Note the fact that we've put the
+    // Owner's vector of Gadgets inside a RefCell so that we can mutate it
+    // through a shared reference.
+    let gadget_owner : Rc<Owner> = Rc::new(
+            Owner {
+                name: "Gadget Man".to_string(),
+                gadgets: RefCell::new(Vec::new())
+            }
+    );
+
+    // Create Gadgets belonging to gadget_owner as before.
+    let gadget1 = Rc::new(Gadget{id: 1, owner: gadget_owner.clone()});
+    let gadget2 = Rc::new(Gadget{id: 2, owner: gadget_owner.clone()});
+
+    // Add the Gadgets to their Owner.  To do this we mutably borrow from
+    // the RefCell holding the Owner's Gadgets.
+    gadget_owner.gadgets.borrow_mut().push(gadget1.clone().downgrade());
+    gadget_owner.gadgets.borrow_mut().push(gadget2.clone().downgrade());
+
+    // Iterate over our Gadgets, printing their details out
+    for gadget_opt in gadget_owner.gadgets.borrow().iter() {
+
+        // gadget_opt is a Weak<Gadget>.  Since weak pointers can't guarantee
+        // that their object is still alive, we need to call upgrade() on them
+        // to turn them into a strong reference.  This returns an Option, which
+        // contains a reference to our object if it still exists.
+        let gadget = gadget_opt.upgrade().unwrap();
+        println!("Gadget {} owned by {}", gadget.id, gadget.owner.name);
+    }
+
+    // At the end of the method, gadget_owner, gadget1 and gadget2 get
+    // destroyed.  There are now no strong (Rc) references to the gadgets.
+    // Once they get destroyed, the Gadgets get destroyed.  This zeroes the
+    // reference count on Gadget Man, so he gets destroyed as well.
+}
+```
 
 */