This is the third post in my series on non-lexical lifetimes. Here I want to dive into Problem Case #3 from the introduction. This is an interesting case because exploring it is what led me to move away from the continuous lifetimes proposed as part of RFC 396.

Problem case #3 revisited

As a reminder, problem case #3 was the following fragment:

fn get_default < 'm , K , V : Default > ( map : & 'm mut HashMap < K , V > , key : K ) -> & 'm mut V { match map .get_mut ( & key ) { // -------------+ 'm Some ( value ) => value , // | None => { // | map .insert ( key , V :: default ()); // | // ^~~~~~ ERROR // | map .get_mut ( & key ) .unwrap () // | } // | } // | } // v

What makes this example interesting is that it crosses functions. In particular, when we call get_mut the first time, if we get back a Some value, we plan to return the point, and hence the value must last until the end of the lifetime 'm (that is, until some point in the caller). However, if we get back a None value, we wish to release the loan immediately, because there is no reference to return.

Many people lack intuition for named lifetime parameters. To help get some better intuition for what a named lifetime parameter represents, imagine some caller of get_default :

fn get_default_caller () { let mut map = HashMap :: new (); ... let map_ref = & mut map ; // -----------------------+ 'm let value = get_default ( map_ref , some_key ()); // | use ( value ); // | // <----------------------------------------------+ ... }

Here we can see that we first create a reference to map called map_ref (I pulled this reference into a variable for purposes of exposition). This variable is passed into get_default , which returns a reference into the map called value . The important point here is that the signature of get_default indicates that value is a reference into the map as well, so that means that the lifetime of map_ref will also include any uses of value . Therefore, the lifetime 'm winds up extending from the creation of map_ref until after the call to use(value) .

Running example: inline

Although ostensibly problem case #3 is about cross-function use, it turns out that – for the purposes of this blog post – we can create an equally interesting test case by inlining get_default into the caller. This will produce the following combined example, which will be the running example for this post. I’ve also taken the liberty of “desugaring” the method calls to get_mut a bit, which helps with explaining what’s going on:

fn get_default_inlined () { let mut map = HashMap :: new (); let key = ... ; ... let value = { // this is the body of `get_default`, just inlined // and slightly tweaked: let map_ref1 = & mut map ; // --------------------------+ 'm1 match map_ref1 .get_mut ( & key ) { // | Some ( value ) => value , // | None => { // . map .insert ( key .clone (), V :: default ()); // . let map_ref2 = & mut map ; // . map_ref2 .get_mut ( & key ) .unwrap () // --+ 'm2 . } // | . } // | | }; // | | use ( value ); // | | // <---------------------------------------------+--------+ }

Written this way, we can see that there are two loans: map_ref1 and map_ref2 . Both loans are passed to get_mut and the resulting reference must last until after the call to use(value) has finished. I’ve depicted the lifetime of the two loans here (and denoted them 'm1 and 'm2 ).

Note that, for this fragment to type-check, 'm1 must exclude the None arm of the match. I’ve denoted this by using a . for that part of the line. This area must be excluded because, otherwise, the calls to insert and get_mut , both of which require mutable borrows of map , would be in conflict with map_ref1 .

But if 'm1 excludes the None part of the match, that means that control can flow out of the region 'm1 (into the None arm) and then back in again (in the use(value) ).

Why RFC 396 alone can’t handle this example

At this point, it’s worth revisiting RFC 396. RFC 396 was based on the very clever notion of defining lifetimes based on the dominator tree. The idea (in my own words here) was that a lifetime consists of a dominator node (the entry point H ) along with a series of of “tails” T . The lifetime then consisted of all nodes that were dominated by H but which dominated one of the tails T . Moreover, you have as a consistency condition, that for every edge V -> W in the CFG, if W != H is in the lifetime, then V is in the lifetime.

The RFC’s definition is somewhat different but (I believe) equivalent. It defines a non-lexical lifetime as a set R of vertifes in the CFG, such that:

R is a subtree (i.e. a connected subgraph) of the dominator tree. If W is a nonroot vertex of R, and V -> W is an edge in the CFG such that V doesn’t strictly dominate W, then V is in R.

In the case of our example above, the dominator tree looks like this (I’m labeling the nodes as well):

A: let mut map = HashMap::new(); B: let key = ...; C: let map_ref1 = &mut map D: map_ref1.get_mut(&key) E: Some(value) => value F: map.insert(key.clone(), V::default()) G: let map_ref2 = &mut map H: map_ref2.get_mut(&key).unwrap() I: use(value)



Here the lifetime 'm1 would be a set containing at least {D, E, I}, because the value in question is used in those places. But then there is an edge in the CFG from H to I, and thus by rule #2, H must be in 'm1 as well. But then rule 1 will require that F and G are in the set, and hence the resulting lifetime will be {D, E, F, G, H, I}. This implies then that the calls to insert and get_mut are disallowed.

The outlives relation in light of control-flow

In my previous post, I defined a lifetime as simply a set of points in the control-flow graph and showed how we can use liveness to ensure that references are valid at each point where they are used. But that is not the full set of constraints we must consider. We must also consider the 'a: 'b constraints that arise as a result of type-checking as well as where clauses.

The constraint 'a: 'b means “the lifetime 'a outlives 'b ”. It basically means that 'a corresponds to something at least as long as 'b (note that the outlives relation, like many other relations such as dominators and subtyping, is reflexive – so it’s ok for 'a and 'b to be equally big). The intuition here is that, if you a reference with lifetime 'a , it is ok to approximate that lifetime to something shorter. This corresponds to a subtyping rule like:

'a: 'b ---------------------- &'a mut T <: &'b mut T

In English, you can approximate a mutable reference of type &'a mut T to a mutable reference of type &'b mut T so long as the new lifetime 'b is shorter than 'a (there is a similar, though different in one particular, rule governing shared references).

We’re going to see that for the type system to work most smoothly, we really want this subtyping relation to be extended to take into account the point P in the control-flow graph where it must hold. So we might write a rule like this instead:

('a: 'b) at P -------------- (&'a mut T <: &'b mut T) at P

However, let’s ignore that for a second and stick to the simpler version of the subtyping rules that I showed at first. This is sufficient for the running example. Once we’ve fully explored that I’ll come back and show a second example where we run into a spot of trouble.

Running example in pseudo-MIR

Before we go any further, let’s transform our running example into a more MIR-like form, based on a control-flow graph. I will use the convention that each basic block ia assigned a letter (e.g., A) and individual statements (or the terminator, in MIR speak) in the basic block are named via the block and an index. So A/0 is the call to HashMap::new() and B/2 is the goto terminator.

A [ map = HashMap::new() ] 1 [ key = ... ] 2 [ goto ] | v B [ map_ref = &mut map ] 1 [ tmp = map_ref1.get_mut(&key) ] 2 [ switch(tmp) ] | | Some None | | v v C [ v1 = (tmp as Some).0 ] D [ map.insert(...) ] 1 [ value = v1 ] 1 [ map_ref2 = &mut map ] 2 [ goto ] 2 [ v2 = map_ref2.get_mut(&key).unwrap() ] | 3 [ value = v2 ] | 4 [ goto ] | | v v E [ use(value) ]

Let’s assume that the types of all these variables are as follows (I’m simplifying in various respects from what the real MIR would do, just to keep the number of temporaries and so forth under control):

map: HashMap<K,V>

key: K

map_ref: &'m1 mut HashMap<K,V>

tmp: Option<&'v1 mut V>

v1: &'v1 mut V

value: &'v0 mut V

map_ref2: &'m2 mut HashMap<K,V>

v2: &'v2 mut V

If we type-check the MIR, we will derive (at least) the following outlives relationships between these lifetimes (these fall out from the rules on subtyping above; if you’re not sure on that point, I have an explanation below of how it works listed under appendix):

'm1: 'v1 – because of B/1

– because of B/1 'm2: 'v2 – because of D/2

– because of D/2 'v1: 'v0 – because of C/2

– because of C/2 'v2: 'v0 – beacuse of D/5

In addition, the liveness rules will add some inclusion constraints as well. In particular, the constraints on 'v0 (the lifetime of the value reference) will be as follows:

'v0: E/0 – value is live here

– is live here 'v0: C/2 – value is live here

– is live here 'v0: D/4 – value is live here

For now, let’s just treat the outlives relation as a “superset” relation. So 'm1: 'v1 , for example, requires that 'm1 be a superset of 'v1 . In turn, 'v0: E/0 can be written 'v0: {E/0} . In that case, if we turn the crank and compute some minimal lifetimes that satisfy the various constraints, we wind up with the following values for each lifetime:

'v0 = {C/2, D/4, E/0}

'v1 = {C/*, D/4, E/0}

'm1 = {B/*, C/*, E/0, D/4}

'v2 = {C/2, D/{3,4}, E/0}

'm2 = {C/2, D/{2,3,4}, E/0}

This turns out not to yield any errors, but you can see some kind of surprising results. For example, the lifetime assigned to v1 (the value from the Some arm) includes some points that are in the None arm – e.g., D/5. This is because 'v1: 'v0 (subtyping from the assignment in C/2) and 'v0: {D/5} (liveness). It turns out you can craft examples where these “extra blocks” pose a problem.

Simple superset considered insufficient

To see where these extra blocks start to get us into trouble, consider this example (here I have annotated the types of some variables, as well as various lifetimes, inline). This is a variation on the previous theme in which there are two maps. This time, along one branch, v0 will equal this reference v1 pointing into map1 , but in the in the else branch, we assign v0 from a reference v2 pointing into map2 . After that assignment, we try to insert into map1 . (This might arise for example if map1 represents a cache against some larger map2 .)

let mut map1 = HashMap :: new (); let mut map2 = HashMap :: new (); let key = ... ; let map_ref1 = & mut map1 ; let v1 = map_ref1 .get_mut ( & key ); let v0 ; if some_condition { v0 = v1 .unwrap (); } else { let map_ref2 = & mut map2 ; let v2 = map_ref2 .get_mut ( & key ); v0 = v2 .unwrap (); map1 .insert ( ... ); } use ( v0 );

Let’s view this in CFG form::

A [ map1 = HashMap::new() ] 1 [ map2 = HashMap::new() ] 2 [ key: K = ... ] 3 [ map_ref1 = &mut map1 ] 4 [ v1 = map_ref1.get_mut(&key) ] 5 [ if some_condition ] | | true false | | v v B [ v0 = v1.unwrap() ] C [ map_ref2 = &mut map2 ] 1 [ goto ] 1 [ v2 = map_ref2.get_mut(&key) ] | 2 [ v0 = v2.unwrap() ] | 3 [ map1.insert(...) ] | 4 [ goto ] | | v v D [ use(v0) ]

The types of the interesting variables are as follows:

v0: &'v0 mut V

map_ref1: &'m1 mut HashMap<K,V>

v1: Option<&'v1 mut V>

map_ref2: &'m2 mut HashMap<K,V>

v2: Option<&'v2 mut V>

The outlives relations that result from type-checking this fragment are as follows:

'm1: 'v1 from A/4

from A/4 'v1: 'v0 from B/0

from B/0 'm2: 'v2 from C/1

from C/1 'v2: 'v0 from C/2

from C/2 'v0: {B/1, C/3, C/4, D/0} from liveness of v0

from liveness of 'm1: {A/3, A/4} from liveness of map_ref1

from liveness of 'v1: {A/5, B/0} from liveness of v1

from liveness of 'm2: {C/0, C/1} from liveness of map_ref2

from liveness of 'v2: {C/2} from liveness of v2

Following the simple “outlives is superset rules we’ve covered so far, this in turn implies the lifetime 'm1 would be {A/3, A/4, B/*, C/3, C/4, D/0} . Note that this includes C/3 , precisely where we would call map1.insert , which means we will get an error at this point.

Location-area outlives

What I propose as a solution is to have the outlives relationship take into account the current position. As I sketched above, the rough idea is that the 'a: 'b relationship becomes ('a: 'b) at P – meaning that 'a must outlive 'b at the point P. We can define this relation as follows:

let S be the set of all points in 'b reachable from P, without passing through the entry point of 'b reminder: the entry point of 'b is the mutual dominator of all points in 'b

reachable from P, if 'a is a superset of S ,

is a superset of , then ('a: 'b) at P

Basically, the idea is that ('a: 'b) at P means that, given that we have arrived at point P, any points that we can reach from here that are still in 'b are also in 'a .

If we apply this new definition to the outlives constraints from the previous section, we see a key difference in the result. In particular, the assignment v0 = v1.unwrap() in B/0 generates the constraint ('v1: 'v0) at B/0 . 'v0 is {B/1, C/3, C/4, D/0} . Before, this meant that 'v1 must include C/3 and C/4 , but now we can screen those out because they are not reachable from B/0 (at least, not without calling the enclosing function again). Therefore, the result is that 'v1 becomes {A/5, B/0, B/1, D/0} , and hence 'm1 becomes {A/3, A/4, A/5, B/0, B/1, D/0} – notably, it no longer includes C/3, and hence no error is reported.

Conclusion and some discussion of alternative approaches

This post dug in some detail into how we can define the outlives relationship between lifetimes. Interestingly, in order to support the examples we want to support, when we move to NLL, we have to be able to support gaps in lifetimes. In all the examples in this post, the key idea was that we want to exit the lifetime when we enter one branch of a conditional, but then “re-enter” it afterwards when we join control-flow after the conditional. This works out ok because we know that, when we exit the first-time, all references with that lifetime are dead (or else the lifetime would have to include that exit point).

There is another way to view it: one can view a lifetime as a set of paths through the control-flow graph, in which case the points after the match or after the if would appear on only on paths that happened to pass through the right arm of the match. They are “conditionally included”, in other words, depending on how control-flow proceeded.

One downside of this approach is that it requires augmenting the subtyping relationship with a location. I don’t see this causing a problem, but it’s not something I’ve seen before. We’ll have to see as we go. It might e.g. affect caching.

Please comment on this internals thread.

Appendix A: An alternative: variables have multiple types

There is another alternative to lifetimes with gaps that we might consider. We might also consider allow variables to have multiple types. I explored this a bit by using an SSA-like renaming, where each verson assignment to a variable yielded a fresh type. However, I thought that in the end it felt more complicated than just allowing lifetimes to have gaps; for one thing, it complicates determining whether two paths overlap in the borrow checker (different versions of the same variable are still stored in the same lvalue), and it doesn’t interact as well with the notion of fragments that I talked about in the previous post (though one can use variants of SSA that operate on fragments, I suppose). Still, it may be worth exploring – and there more precedent for that in the literature, to be sure. One advantage of that approach is that one can use “continuous lifetimes”, I think, which may be easier to represent in a compact fashion – on the other hand, you have a lot more lifetime variables, so that may not be a win. (Also, I think you still need the outlives relationship to be location-dependent.)

Given the definition of the get_mut method, the compiler is able to see that the reference which gets returned is reborrowed from the self argument. That is, the compiler can see that as long as you are using the return value, you are (indirectly) using the self reference as well. This is indicated by the named lifetime parameter 'v that appears in the definition of get_mut :

fn get_mut < 'v > ( & 'v mut self , key : & Key ) -> Option <& 'v mut V > { ... }

There are various ways to think of this signature, and in particular the named lifetime parameter 'v . The most intuitive explanation is this parameter indicates that the return value is “borrowed from” the self argument (because they share the same lifetime 'v ). Hence we could conclude that when we call tmp = map_ref1.get_mut(&key) , the lifetime of the input ( 'm1 ) must outlive the lifetime of the output ( 'v1 ). Written using outlives notation, that would be that this call requires that 'm1: 'v1 . This is the right conclusion, but it may be worth digging a bit more into how the type system actually works internally.

Specifically, the way the type system works, is that when get_mut is called, to find the signature at that particular callsite, we replace the lifetime parameter 'v is replaced with a new inference variable (let’s call it '0 ). So at the point where tmp = map_ref1.get_mut(&key) is called, the signature of get_mut is effectively:

fn(self: &'0 mut HashMap<K,V>, key: &'1 K) -> Option<&'0 mut V>

Here you can see that the self parameter is treated like any other explicit argument, and that the lifetime of the key reference (now made explicit as '1 ) is an independent variable from the lifetime of the self reference. Next we would require that the type of each supplied argument must be a subtype of what appears in the signature. In particular, for the self argument, that results in this requirement:

&'m1 mut HashMap<K,V> <: &'0 mut HashMap<K,V>

from which we can conclude that 'm1: '0 must hold. Finally, we require that the declared return type of the function must be a subtype of the type of the variable where the return value is stored, and hence:

Option<&'0 mut V> <: Option<&'v1 mut V> implies: &'0 mut V <: &'v1 mut V implies: '0: 'v1

So the end result from all of these subtype operations is that we have two outlives relations:

'm1: '0 '0: 'v

These in turn imply an indirect relationship between 'm1 and 'v :

`'m1: 'v1`

This final relationship is, of course, precisely what our intuition led us to in the first place: the lifetime of the reference to the map must outlive the lifetime of the returned value.