Describe drop elaboration

src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -116,6 +116,7 @@
     - [Opaque Types](./opaque-types-type-alias-impl-trait.md)
 - [Pattern and Exhaustiveness Checking](./pat-exhaustive-checking.md)
 - [MIR dataflow](./mir/dataflow.md)
+- [Drop elaboration](./mir/drop-elaboration.md)
 - [The borrow checker](./borrow_check.md)
     - [Tracking moves and initialization](./borrow_check/moves_and_initialization.md)
         - [Move paths](./borrow_check/moves_and_initialization/move_paths.md)

src/mir/drop-elaboration.md

@@ -0,0 +1,195 @@
+# Drop elaboration
+
+<!-- toc -->
+
+## Dynamic drops
+
+According to the [reference][reference-drop]:
+
+> When an initialized variable or temporary goes out of scope, its destructor
+> is run, or it is dropped. Assignment also runs the destructor of its
+> left-hand operand, if it's initialized. If a variable has been partially
+> initialized, only its initialized fields are dropped.
+
+When building the MIR, the `Drop` and `DropAndReplace` terminators represent
+places where drops may occur. However, in this phase, the presence of these
+terminators does not guarantee that a destructor will run. That's because the
+target of a drop may be uninitialized (usually because it has been moved from)
+before the terminator is reached. In general, we cannot know at compile-time whether a
+variable is initialized.
+
+```rust
+let mut y = vec![];
+
+{
+    let x = vec![1, 2, 3];
+    if std::process::id() % 2 == 0 {
+        y = x; // conditionally move `x` into `y`
+    }
+} // `x` goes out of scope here. Should it be dropped?
+```
+
+In these cases, we need to keep track of whether a variable is initialized
+*dynamically*. The rules are laid out in detail in [RFC 320: Non-zeroing
+dynamic drops][RFC 320].
+
+## Drop obligations
+
+From the RFC:
+
+> When a local variable becomes initialized, it establishes a set of "drop
+> obligations": a set of structural paths (e.g. a local `a`, or a path to a
+> field `b.f.y`) that need to be dropped.
+>
+> The drop obligations for a local variable x of struct-type `T` are computed
+> from analyzing the structure of `T`. If `T` itself implements `Drop`, then `x` is a
+> drop obligation. If `T` does not implement `Drop`, then the set of drop
+> obligations is the union of the drop obligations of the fields of `T`.
+
+When a structural path is moved from (and thus becomes uninitialized), any drop
+obligations for that path or its descendants (`path.f`, `path.f.g.h`, etc.) are
+released. Types with `Drop` implementations do not permit moves from individual
+fields, so there is no need to track initializedness through them.
+
+When a local variable goes out of scope (`Drop`), or when a structural path is
+overwritten via assignment (`DropAndReplace`), we check for any drop
+obligations for that variable or path.  Unless that obligation has been
+released by this point, its associated `Drop` implementation will be called.
+For `enum` types, only fields corresponding to the "active" variant need to be
+dropped. When processing drop obligations for such types, we first check the
+discriminant to determine the active variant. All drop obligations for variants
+besides the active one are ignored.
+
+Here are a few interesting types to help illustrate these rules:
+
+```rust
+struct NoDrop(u8); // No `Drop` impl. No fields with `Drop` impls.
+
+struct NeedsDrop(Vec<u8>); // No `Drop` impl but has fields with `Drop` impls.
+
+struct ThinVec(*const u8); // Custom `Drop` impl. Individual fields cannot be moved from.
+
+impl Drop for ThinVec {
+    fn drop(&mut self) { /* ... */ }
+}
+
+enum MaybeDrop {
+    Yes(NeedsDrop),
+    No(NoDrop),
+}
+```
+
+## Drop elaboration
+
+One valid model for these rules is to keep a boolean flag (a "drop flag") for
+every structural path that is used at any point in the function. This flag is
+set when its path is initialized and is cleared when the path is moved from.
+When a `Drop` occurs, we check the flags for every obligation associated with
+the target of the `Drop` and call the associated `Drop` impl for those that are
+still applicable.
+
+This process—transforming the newly built MIR with its imprecise `Drop` and
+`DropAndReplace` terminators into one with drop flags—is known as drop
+elaboration. When a MIR statement causes a variable to become initialized (or
+uninitialized), drop elaboration inserts code that sets (or clears) the drop
+flag for that variable. It wraps `Drop` terminators in conditionals that check
+the newly inserted drop flags.
+
+Drop elaboration also splits `DropAndReplace` terminators into a `Drop` of the
+target and a write of the newly dropped place. This is somewhat unrelated to what
+we've discussed above.
+
+Once this is complete, `Drop` terminators in the MIR correspond to a call to
+the "drop glue" or "drop shim" for the type of the dropped place. The drop
+glue for a type calls the `Drop` impl for that type (if one exists), and then
+recursively calls the drop glue for all fields of that type.
+
+## Drop elaboration in `rustc`
+
+The approach described above is more expensive than necessary. One can imagine
+a few optimizations:
+
+- Only paths that are the target of a `Drop` (or have the target as a prefix)
+  need drop flags.
+- Some variables are known to initialized (or uninitialized) when they are
+  dropped. These do not need drop flags.
+- If a set of paths are only dropped or moved from via a shared prefix, those
+  paths can share a single drop flag.
+
+A subset of these are implemented in `rustc`.
+
+In the compiler, drop elaboration is split across several modules. The pass
+itself is defined [here][drops-transform], but the [main logic][drops] is
+defined elsewhere since it is also used to build [drop shims][drops-shim].
+
+Drop elaboration designates each `Drop` in the newly built MIR as one of four
+kinds:
+
+- `Static`, the target is always initialized.
+- `Dead`, the target is always **un**initialized.
+- `Conditional`, the target is either wholly initialized or wholly
+  uninitialized. It is not partly initialized.
+- `Open`, the target may be partly initialized.
+
+For this, it uses a pair of dataflow analyses, `MaybeInitializedPlaces` and
+`MaybeUninitializedPlaces`. If a place is in one but not the other, then the
+initializedness of the target is known at compile-time (`Dead` or `Static`).
+In this case, drop elaboration does not add a flag for the target. It simply
+removes (`Dead`) or preserves (`Static`) the `Drop` terminator.
+
+For `Conditional` drops, we know that the initializedness of the variable as a
+whole is the same as the initializedness of its fields. Therefore, once we
+generate a drop flag for the target of that drop, it's safe to call the drop
+glue for that target.
+
+### `Open` drops
+
+`Open` drops are the most complex, since we need to break down a single `Drop`
+terminator into several different ones, one for each field of the target whose
+type has drop glue (`Ty::needs_drop`). We cannot call the drop glue for the
+target itself because that requires all fields of the target to be initialized.
+Remember, variables whose type has a custom `Drop` impl do not allow `Open`
+drops because their fields cannot be moved from.
+
+This is accomplished by recursively categorizing each field as `Dead`,
+`Static`, `Conditional` or `Open`. Fields whose type does not have drop glue
+are automatically `Dead` and need not be considered during the recursion. When
+we reach a field whose kind is not `Open`, we handle it as we did above. If the
+field is also `Open`, the recursion continues.
+
+It's worth noting how we handle `Open` drops of enums. Inside drop elaboration,
+each variant of the enum is treated like a field, with the invariant that only
+one of those "variant fields" can be initialized at any given time. In the
+general case, we do not know which variant is the active one, so we will have
+to call the drop glue for the enum (which checks the discriminant) or check the
+discriminant ourselves as part of an elaborated `Open` drop. However, in
+certain cases (within a `match` arm, for example) we do know which variant of
+an enum is active. This information is encoded in the `MaybeInitializedPlaces`
+and `MaybeUninitializedPlaces` dataflow analyses by marking all places
+corresponding to inactive variants as uninitialized.
+
+### Cleanup paths
+
+TODO: Discuss drop elaboration and unwinding.
+
+## Aside: drop elaboration and const-eval
+
+In Rust, functions that are eligible for evaluation at compile-time must be
+marked explicitly using the `const` keyword. This includes implementations  of
+the `Drop` trait, which may or may not be `const`. Code that is eligible for
+compile-time evaluation may only call `const` functions, so any calls to
+non-const `Drop` implementations in such code must be forbidden.
+
+A call to a `Drop` impl is encoded as a `Drop` terminator in the MIR. However,
+as we discussed above, a `Drop` terminator in newly built MIR does not
+necessarily result in a call to `Drop::drop`. The drop target may be
+uninitialized at that point. This means that checking for non-const `Drop`s on
+the newly built MIR can result in spurious errors. Instead, we wait until after
+drop elaboration runs, which eliminates `Dead` drops (ones where the target is
+known to be uninitialized) to run these checks.
+
+[RFC 320]: https://rust-lang.github.io/rfcs/0320-nonzeroing-dynamic-drop.html
+[reference-drop]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/destructors.html
+[drops]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/compiler/rustc_mir_dataflow/src/elaborate_drops.rs
+[drops-shim]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/compiler/rustc_mir_transform/src/shim.rs
+[drops-transform]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/compiler/rustc_mir_dataflow/src/elaborate_drops.rs