Re: [PATCH v2 02/16] rust: io: add `IoRepr` trait

[Gary Guo]

On Mon Aug 10, 2026 at 10:30 AM BST, Alexandre Courbot wrote:
> On Thu Aug 6, 2026 at 1:35 AM JST, Gary Guo wrote:
>> For types that are layout-compatible with an I/O capable type, we would
>> want the ability to use them directly for I/O operations. E.g.
>>
>>     bitfield! {
>>         pub struct Foo(u32) {
>>             ...
>>         }
>>     }
>>
>>     #[repr(C)]
>>     struct Bar {
>>         foo: Foo,
>>     }
>>
>>     let mmio: Mmio<'_, Bar> = ...;
>>     io_read!(mmio, .foo)
>>
>> Currently this feature is available from `register!()` macro but not
>> otherwise available with `io_read!`, `io_write!`. Support this by adding a
>> `IoRepr` type to denote the underlying I/O type to use for a specific type.
>>
>> This makes the `IoLoc::IoType` and `Register::Storage` redundant; thus
>> remove them; also convert register methods to use the `read_val` and
>> `write_val` instead.
>
> Ah that's nice, I was a bit bothered that `IoType` and `Storage`
> basically defined the same thing.
>
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Gary Guo <gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>> ---
>>  rust/kernel/bitfield.rs    |   5 ++
>>  rust/kernel/io.rs          | 203 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
>>  rust/kernel/io/register.rs |  59 +++++--------
>>  3 files changed, 170 insertions(+), 97 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/rust/kernel/bitfield.rs b/rust/kernel/bitfield.rs
>> index 35ede53f2b8e..4bc92c62da06 100644
>> --- a/rust/kernel/bitfield.rs
>> +++ b/rust/kernel/bitfield.rs
>> @@ -308,6 +308,7 @@ macro_rules! bitfield {
>>          $(#[$attr])*
>>          #[repr(transparent)]
>>          #[derive(Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
>> +        #[derive($crate::prelude::FromBytes, $crate::prelude::IntoBytes)]
>>          $vis struct $name {
>>              inner: $storage,
>>          }
>> @@ -346,6 +347,10 @@ fn from(val: $storage) -> $name {
>>                  Self::from_raw(val)
>>              }
>>          }
>> +
>> +        impl $crate::io::IoRepr for $name {
>> +            type Repr = $storage;
>> +        }
>
> This introduces a dependency from `bitfield` to `io`, which looks like
> inconsistent layering. But thankfully there is an easy fix - see below.
>
>>      };
>>  
>>      // Definitions requiring knowledge of individual fields: private and public field accessors,
>> diff --git a/rust/kernel/io.rs b/rust/kernel/io.rs
>> index adfc555de7d0..71c6180ed745 100644
>> --- a/rust/kernel/io.rs
>> +++ b/rust/kernel/io.rs
>> @@ -276,6 +276,91 @@ pub trait IoCapable<T>: IoBackend {
>>      fn io_write<'a>(view: Self::View<'a, T>, value: T);
>>  }
>>  
>> +/// Safe transmute that performs size check on monomorphization-time.
>> +///
>> +/// Can be considered as generic version of [`zerocopy::transmute!`] macro but using the unstable
>> +/// `core::mem::transmute_neo` instead of [`core::mem::transmute`].
>> +#[inline(always)] // This is a no-op.
>> +fn transmute_neo<Src: IntoBytes, Dst: FromBytes>(val: Src) -> Dst {
>> +    const_assert!(size_of::<Src>() == size_of::<Dst>());
>> +
>> +    // SAFETY: `Src: IntoBytes` and `Dst: FromBytes` and we've checked size is the same.
>> +    unsafe { core::mem::transmute_copy(&core::mem::ManuallyDrop::new(val)) }
>> +}
>
> This is universally useful, so let's move this to the `transmute` module?

I think we can just have a `kernel::mem` and put it there so it's consistent
with std naming. The `transmute` module just contains two types that are going
away.

Ideally we have this function in `zerocopy`. But my understanding is that this
depends on inline const which is stable since 1.79 but zerocopy's MSRV is 1.56.

>
>> +
>> +/// Trait indicating the underlying primitive types to be used for I/O operations.
>> +///
>> +/// Implementing trait allows arbitrary types to be used for I/O operations, not just raw
>> +/// primitives.
>> +///
>> +/// The layout of the type and the underlying primitive must match; this is enforced via const
>> +/// assertions when I/O methods are used, as the type system cannot represent this.
>> +/// [`IoRepr::from_repr`] and [`IoRepr::into_expr`] can be overridden for conversions, however it
>> +/// should be noted that they are only invoked on value read/write operations and are not invoked
>> +/// on byte operations such as [`Io::copy_read`].
>> +///
>> +/// # Examples
>> +///
>> +/// ```
>> +/// # use kernel::io::*;
>> +/// #[repr(transparent)]
>> +/// #[derive(FromBytes, IntoBytes)]
>> +/// pub struct MyNewType(u32);
>> +///
>> +/// impl IoRepr for MyNewType {
>> +///     type Repr = u32;
>> +/// }
>> +///
>> +/// #[repr(C)]
>> +/// pub struct MyStruct {
>> +///     raw: u32,
>> +///     new_type: MyNewType,
>> +/// }
>> +///
>> +/// # fn test(mmio: Mmio<'_, MyStruct>) {
>> +/// // let mmio: Mmio<'_, MyStruct>;
>> +/// let val: u32 = io_read!(mmio, .raw); // Raw primitive read
>> +/// io_write!(mmio, .raw, val);          // Raw primitve write
>> +/// let val: MyNewType = io_read!(mmio, .new_type); // Read via `IoRepr`.
>> +/// io_write!(mmio, .new_type, val);                // Write via `IoRepr`.
>> +/// # }
>> +/// ```
>> +pub trait IoRepr: FromBytes + IntoBytes + Sized {
>> +    /// The backing I/O capable type.
>> +    type Repr: FromBytes + IntoBytes;
>> +
>> +    /// Convert from [`IoRepr::Repr`] to `Self`.
>> +    #[inline(always)]
>> +    fn from_repr(repr: Self::Repr) -> Self {
>> +        transmute_neo(repr)
>> +    }
>> +
>> +    /// Convert from `Self` to [`IoRepr::Repr`].
>> +    #[inline(always)]
>> +    fn into_repr(this: Self) -> Self::Repr {
>> +        transmute_neo(this)
>> +    }
>> +}
>> +
>> +macro_rules! impl_io_repr {
>> +    ($($ty:ty => $backing:ty,)*) => {
>> +        $(impl IoRepr for $ty {
>> +            type Repr = $backing;
>> +        })*
>> +    };
>> +}
>> +
>> +impl_io_repr! {
>> +    u8 => u8,
>> +    u16 => u16,
>> +    u32 => u32,
>> +    u64 => u64,
>> +    i8 => u8,
>> +    i16 => u16,
>> +    i32 => u32,
>> +    i64 => u64,
>> +}
>
> ... and `IoRepr` and its implementations for primitive types should also
> be part of `transmute` IMHO (after being renamed to e.g. `Repr`), for
> there is nothing I/O exclusive to it. It just indicates that one type
> can be represented by another, a property that is again useful outside
> of I/O.

I tried to be a little bit forward looking in designing this, so I ended up
with a design that provides conversion functions instead of just transmutation.
If we're moving it we should probably just get rid of these and just require a
transmutability with the raw repr.

Note that there is `AtomicType` which has similar (but not equivalent
requirement). `AtomicType` requires a round-trip transmutability only, and
`IoRepr` needs both directions. So `repr(C)` enums (that is not used up all its
variant reprs) can be `AtomicType` but not `IoRepr`.

>
> That way `bitfield` gets a dependency on `transmute` rather than `io`,
> which doesn't break layering.

We can also avoid breaking layering by requiring user to need to specify
`#[derive(IoRepr)]` when declaring bitfield.

Best,
Gary

>
> In order to avoid `Repr::Repr` we can also rename the associated type to
> `Raw` and update the method names accordingly to `from_raw`/`into_raw` -
> which would have allowed us to remove the `bitfield` methods of the same
> name if they weren't needed in const context! But at least it makes
> things align nicely.
>
> <...>
>> @@ -831,8 +816,8 @@ macro_rules! register {
>>              { $($fields:tt)* }
>>      ) => {
>>          $crate::register!(@bitfield $(#[$attr])* $vis struct $name($storage) { $($fields)* });
>> -        $crate::register!(@io_base $name($storage) @ $offset);
>> -        $crate::register!(@io_fixed $(#[$attr])* $vis $name($storage));
>> +        $crate::register!(@io_base $name @ $offset);
>> +        $crate::register!(@io_fixed $(#[$attr])* $vis $name);
>>      };
>>  
>>      };
>> [snip]
>>  
>>      // Implementations of register arrays.
>> -    (@io_array $vis:vis $name:ident ($storage:ty) [ $size:expr, stride = $stride:expr ]) => {
>> +    (@io_array $vis:vis $name:ident [ $size:expr, stride = $stride:expr ]) => {
>>          impl $crate::io::register::Array for $name {}
>>  
>>          impl $crate::io::register::RegisterArray for $name {
>> @@ -1008,7 +991,7 @@ impl $crate::io::register::RegisterArray for $name {
>>  
>>      // Implementations of relative array registers.
>>      (
>> -        @io_relative_array $vis:vis $name:ident ($storage:ty) [ $size:expr, stride = $stride:expr ]
>> +        @io_relative_array $vis:vis $name:ident [ $size:expr, stride = $stride:expr ]
>>              @ $base:ident + $offset:literal
>>      ) => {
>>          impl $crate::io::register::WithBase for $name {
>
> These appear to repeat quite a bit of [1] which is already in
> `driver-core-next`. You'll want to rebase, I think the only difference
> between the two is the removal of $storage from @io_base.

I'm thinking of moving this entire thing to syn :)

Best,
Gary