Tracking issue for RFC 1758: Specify repr(transparent)

[aturon]

RFC

This is a tracking issue for the RFC "Specify repr(transparent)" (rust-lang/rfcs#1758).

Steps:

• Implement the RFC (done in Implement repr(transparent) #47158)
• Adjust documentation (see instructions on forge)
• Stabilization PR (see instructions on forge)

[eddyb]

Mentoring instructions unavailable. This is sadly not that easy, as we have too much code that still relies on assumptions that such types do not exist. I have an in-progress branch which requires implementing the necessary support for "newtype unpacking" but no time frame for completion.

[RalfJung]

Is making types like Cell repr(transparent) (which e.g. rust-lang/rfcs#1789 relies on) part of the implementation of the RFC or would that require its own RFC?

[aturon]

@RalfJung For a change at that level, a PR approved by the libs team suffices.

[hanna-kruppe]

The RFC makes contradictory statements about the interaction with repr(align(N)): The Motivation section says

Given this attribute delegates all representation concerns, no other repr attribute should be present on the type. This means the following definitions are illegal:

#[repr(transparent, align = "128")]
struct BogusAlign(f64);

#[repr(transparent, packed)]
struct BogusPacked(f64);

... while the Detailed Design section says:

This new representation cannot be used with any other representation attribute but alignment, to be able to specify a transparent wrapper with additional alignment constraints:

#[repr(transparent, align = "128")]
struct OverAligned(f64); // Behaves as a bare f64 with 128 bits alignment.

#[repr(C, transparent)]
struct BogusRepr(f64); // Nonsensical, repr cannot be C and transparent.

AFAICT the RFC initially prohibited repr(transparent, align), then in the discussion some people asked for it to be allowed, but later the rationale for that was called into question and there was no consensus or (explicit) decision. So it's hard to see which alternative was intended to be the final state by the RFC author and the lang team.

[eddyb]

I'd disallow it since it significantly complicates the implementation IMO. Is there any motivation for allowing the combination?

[hanna-kruppe]

Discussion is mostly rust-lang/rfcs#1758 (comment) plus the immediate replies. The motivation is not immediately clear to me, just that a nested wrapper type with align(N) and no transparent is not equivalent to a single type with repr(align(N), transparent). Perhaps @briansmith or @nox could elaborate?

[hanna-kruppe]

@nox tells me on IRC they have no use case for it. Let's amend the RFC to consistently reject repr(transparent, align). If someone does find a use case, they can deal with the implementation effort and amend the RFC again.

[briansmith]

Sorry, it's been forever since we had that conversation. Maybe I'm overlooking something, but I think #[repr(transparent, align=16)] would be very common. For example:

#[repr(transparent, align=16)]
struct Aes256Key([u8; 32]);

#[repr(transparent, align=16)]
struct AesNonce([u8; 16]);

// Keep this in sync with the C definition in aes.h
#[repr(C)]
struct Aes256Context {
    key: Aes256Key,
    ...
    nonce: AesNonce,
    ...
}

extern aes256Encrypt(context: &mut Aes256Context, ...);

I'm not sure how one would express this otherwise.

[eddyb]

Is there any ABI where you need #[repr(transparent)] in conjunction with an aggregate type (e.g. a non-transparent struct, or in your case, an array)?
AFAIK, none of the ABIs we support today has such a distinction, so #[repr(transparent)] wouldn't really have to do anything to be correct in those cases, but maybe I'm wrong?

EDIT: Also, are you ever passing or returning Aes256Key or AesNonce by value to/from a function? That's the only time #[repr(transparent)] actually does anything.
The calling convention part of the ABI is orthogonal to the memory layout, and the latter is identical between a struct with one field and the field itself, pretty much everywhere.

[briansmith]

Is there any ABI where you need #[repr(transparent)] in conjunction with an aggregate type (e.g. a non-transparent struct, or in your case, an array)?

Consider:

typedef uint8_t AES256Key[32];
typedef uint8_t AES128Key[16];
typedef uint8_t AESNonce[16];

struct Aes256Context {
    alignas(16) AES256Key key;
    alignas(16) AES256Nonce nonce;
};

Notice in particular that in this C code AES128Key and AES128Nonce are both aliases for uint8_t[16] and so they can be used (unfortunately) interchangeably. In my Rust code, I want to use the newtype pattern to make AES128Key and AES128Nonce non-interchangeable types. AFAICT, this requires using #repr[transparenent)], e.g. #repr[transparenent)] struct AES128Key([u8; 16]). In this codebase it is also required (for performance and/or correctness reasons, depending on platform) that everything be 128-bit aligned because of assumptions made by the hand-coded assembly code that uses these structures.

AFAIK, none of the ABIs we support today has such a distinction, so #[repr(transparent)] wouldn't really have to do anything to be correct in those cases, but maybe I'm wrong?

EDIT: Also, are you ever passing or returning Aes256Key or AesNonce by value to/from a function? That's the only time #[repr(transparent)] actually does anything.

Is that true? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the purpose of #[repr(transparent)], but I think that #[repr(transparent)] is supposed to do more than change how things are passed by value. Consider:

struct Outer1 {
    struct Wrapper value1;
    struct Wrapper value2; 
};

struct Wrapper {
    uint8_t value[12];
};

struct Outer2 {
    uint8_t value1[12];
    uint8_t value2[12];
};

Are these structures guaranteed, by C, to have the same memory layout? I don't remember the details but I think the answer is "no". And that's why #repr(transparent) matters for more than by-value argument passing semantics; it allows us to make a Wrapper type in our Rust bindings to that is transparent w.r.t. C semantics.

The calling convention part of the ABI is orthogonal to the memory layout, and the latter is identical between a struct with one field and the field itself, pretty much everywhere.

I think a struct with one field, like Wrapper above, is allowed to have additional padding that isn't necessarily added when there is no such struct. For example, in my example, I think it's allowed for offsetof(Outer1, value2) == 16 && offsetof(Outer2, value2) == 12.

[eddyb]

@briansmith That would imply Wrapper has non-byte alignment and we don't currently support any architecture where that is the case, are you aware of any out there?

EDIT: also, it looks like the correct translation of the C code would be #[repr(align(16))] on fields, which we could reasonably add support for.

[rfcbot]

The final comment period, with a disposition to merge, as per the review above, is now complete.

[SimonSapin]

Stabilization PR: #51395
Reference PR: rust-lang/reference#353

[SimonSapin]

Oops, this should have been closed by #51562.

[RReverser]

Could I ask here for some eyes on a suggestion to add #[repr(transparent)] to Box<T> and whether there are any obvious downsides? Thanks! #52976