Re: [PATCH v3 09/13] rust: init: add `Zeroable` trait and `init::zeroed` function

[Benno Lossin]

On 31.03.23 00:40, Alice Ryhl wrote:
> On 3/30/23 00:33, y86-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> From: Benno Lossin <y86-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> Add the `Zeroable` trait which marks types that can be initialized by
>> writing `0x00` to every byte of the type. Also add the `init::zeroed`
>> function that creates an initializer for a `Zeroable` type that writes
>> `0x00` to every byte.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Benno Lossin <y86-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> ---
>> +// SAFETY: `null` pointer is valid.
>> +unsafe impl<T: ?Sized> Zeroable for *mut T {}
>> +unsafe impl<T: ?Sized> Zeroable for *const T {}
>
> Actually, I just realized that this is not ok for unsized types. When T
> is unsized, the raw pointer is a fat pointer with a vtable, and the
> vtable part is not necessarily zeroable.
>
> However, it would be ok to do it for `*const [T]` since the fat part of
> the pointer is just the length in this case, and a length of zero is fine.
>
> See more here:
> https://github.com/Lokathor/bytemuck/blob/8391afa876ba2e99dffb0c991cc7fa775287d106/src/zeroable.rs#L56-L65

Wow I forgot about fat pointers completely! Good catch!

--
Cheers,
Benno