Can I propagate the Send
trait of function parameters to its return type, so that the return type is impl Send
if and only if the parameters are?
Details:
An async function has a nice feature. Its returned Future
is automatically Send
if it can be. In the following example, the async function will create a Future
that is Send
, if the inputs to the function are Send
.
struct MyStruct;
impl MyStruct {
// This async fn returns an `impl Future<Output=T> + Send` if `T` is Send.
// Otherwise, it returns an `impl Future<Output=T>` without `Send`.
async fn func<T>(&self, t: T) -> T {
t
}
}
fn assert_is_send(_v: impl Send) {}
fn main() {
// This works
assert_is_send(MyStruct.func(4u64));
// And the following correctly fails
assert_is_send(MyStruct.func(std::rc::Rc::new(4u64)));
}
Now, I want to move such a function into a trait, which requires using async-trait (which is some codegen that effectively writes my async fn
as a function returning Pin<Box<dyn Future>>
) or doing something similar manually. Is there a way to write this in a way to retain this auto-Send behavior where the returned Future
is made Send
if T
is Send
? The following example implements it as two separate functions:
use std::pin::Pin;
use std::future::Future;
struct MyStruct;
impl MyStruct {
fn func_send<T: 'static + Send>(&self, t: T) -> Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = T> + Send>> {
Box::pin(async{t})
}
fn func_not_send<T: 'static>(&self, t: T) -> Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = T>>> {
Box::pin(async{t})
}
}
fn assert_is_send(_v: impl Send) {}
fn main() {
// This works
assert_is_send(MyStruct.func_send(4u64));
// And the following correctly fails
// assert_is_send(MyStruct.func(std::rc::Rc::new(4u64)));
}
But actually, I don't want them to be separate. I want them to be one function similar to how async fn
does it automatically. Something along the lines of
use std::pin::Pin;
use std::future::Future;
struct MyStruct;
impl MyStruct {
fn func<T: 'static + ?Send>(&self, t: T) -> Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = T> + ?Send>> {
Box::pin(async{t})
}
}
fn assert_is_send(_v: impl Send) {}
fn main() {
// This should
assert_is_send(MyStruct.func(4u64));
// And this should fail
assert_is_send(MyStruct.func(std::rc::Rc::new(4u64)));
}
Is something like this possible in Rust? I'm ok with writing the async-trait magic manually and modifying it instead of using the async-trait crate if that is a way to make it work.
Some ideas I had but they haven't really borne fruit yet:
Send
? But doesn't seem like that feature is going to be stabilized anytime soon so maybe not the best option.MyFuture
type instead of just impl Future
and somehow impl Send for MyFuture where T: Send
? Would probably be difficult though since I would have to be able to name that Future
and async
code usually produces impl Future
types that cannot be named.+ Send
to the return type if it recognizes that the input type is Send
. Actually, can procedural macros detect if a certain type implements Send
? My guess would be it's not possible since they just work on token streams.(2) is the only way that could work.
There are two ways to make it work:
async
and .await
. But that means writing the future manually:enum ConditionalSendFut<T> {
Start { t: T },
Done,
}
impl<T> Unpin for ConditionalSendFut<T> {}
impl<T> Future for ConditionalSendFut<T> {
type Output = T;
fn poll(mut self: Pin<&mut Self>, _context: &mut Context<'_>) -> Poll<Self::Output> {
match &mut *self {
Self::Start { .. } => {
let t = match std::mem::replace(&mut *self, Self::Done) {
Self::Start { t } => t,
_ => unreachable!(),
};
Poll::Ready(t)
}
Self::Done => Poll::Pending,
}
}
}
struct MyStruct;
impl MyStruct {
fn func<T: 'static>(&self, t: T) -> ConditionalSendFut<T> {
ConditionalSendFut::Start { t }
}
}
Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = T>>>
and conditionally impl Send
on the future. But this requires unsafe
code and manually ensuring that you don't hold other non-Send
types across .await
points:struct ConditionalSendFut<T>(Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = T>>>);
// SAFETY: The only non-`Send` type we're holding across an `.await`
// point is `T`.
unsafe impl<T: Send> Send for ConditionalSendFut<T> {}
impl<T> Future for ConditionalSendFut<T> {
type Output = T;
fn poll(mut self: Pin<&mut Self>, context: &mut Context<'_>) -> Poll<Self::Output> {
self.0.as_mut().poll(context)
}
}
struct MyStruct;
impl MyStruct {
fn func<T: 'static>(&self, t: T) -> ConditionalSendFut<T> {
ConditionalSendFut(Box::pin(async { t }))
}
}
(1) cannot work with traits, as each impl will have a different future. This leaves us with (2) only. I would not recommend it, but it is possible.
It is very likely that when async fns in traits will be stable there will be a mechanism to that (what is talked about currently is to impl them conditionally and use bounds on use sites to require them) but currently there is no such thing, even on the nightly implementation of async fns in traits.