Struct Request

pub struct Request<'a>(/* private fields */);

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (error_generic_member_access)

Request supports generic, type-driven access to data. Its use is currently restricted to the standard library in cases where trait authors wish to allow trait implementors to share generic information across trait boundaries. The motivating and prototypical use case is core::error::Error which would otherwise require a method per concrete type (eg. std::backtrace::Backtrace instance that implementors want to expose to users).

Data flow

To describe the intended data flow for Request objects, let’s consider two conceptual users separated by API boundaries:

• Consumer - the consumer requests objects using a Request instance; eg a crate that offers fancy Error/Result reporting to users wants to request a Backtrace from a given dyn Error.

• Producer - the producer provides objects when requested via Request; eg. a library with an an Error implementation that automatically captures backtraces at the time instances are created.

The consumer only needs to know where to submit their request and are expected to handle the request not being fulfilled by the use of Option<T> in the responses offered by the producer.

• A Producer initializes the value of one of its fields of a specific type. (or is otherwise prepared to generate a value requested). eg, backtrace::Backtrace or std::backtrace::Backtrace
• A Consumer requests an object of a specific type (say std::backtrace::Backtrace). In the case of a dyn Error trait object (the Producer), there are functions called request_ref and request_value to simplify obtaining an Option<T> for a given type.
• The Producer, when requested, populates the given Request object which is given as a mutable reference.
• The Consumer extracts a value or reference to the requested type from the Request object wrapped in an Option<T>; in the case of dyn Error the aforementioned request_ref and request_value methods mean that dyn Error users don’t have to deal with the Request type at all (but Error implementors do). The None case of the Option suggests only that the Producer cannot currently offer an instance of the requested type, not it can’t or never will.

Examples

The best way to demonstrate this is using an example implementation of Error’s provide trait method:

#![feature(error_generic_member_access)]
use core::fmt;
use core::error::Request;
use core::error::request_ref;

#[derive(Debug)]
enum MyLittleTeaPot {
    Empty,
}

#[derive(Debug)]
struct MyBacktrace {
    // ...
}

impl MyBacktrace {
    fn new() -> MyBacktrace {
        // ...
    }
}

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Error {
    backtrace: MyBacktrace,
}

impl fmt::Display for Error {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "Example Error")
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for Error {
    fn provide<'a>(&'a self, request: &mut Request<'a>) {
        request
            .provide_ref::<MyBacktrace>(&self.backtrace);
    }
}

fn main() {
    let backtrace = MyBacktrace::new();
    let error = Error { backtrace };
    let dyn_error = &error as &dyn std::error::Error;
    let backtrace_ref = request_ref::<MyBacktrace>(dyn_error).unwrap();

    assert!(core::ptr::eq(&error.backtrace, backtrace_ref));
    assert!(request_ref::<MyLittleTeaPot>(dyn_error).is_none());
}

Implementations

impl<'a> Request<'a>

pub fn provide_value<T>(&mut self, value: T) -> &mut Request<'a>

where T: 'static,

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (error_generic_member_access)

Provides a value or other type with only static lifetimes.

Examples

Provides an u8.

#![feature(error_generic_member_access)]

use core::error::Request;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct SomeConcreteType { field: u8 }

impl std::fmt::Display for SomeConcreteType {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "{} failed", self.field)
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for SomeConcreteType {
    fn provide<'a>(&'a self, request: &mut Request<'a>) {
        request.provide_value::<u8>(self.field);
    }
}

pub fn provide_value_with<T>( &mut self, fulfil: impl FnOnce() -> T, ) -> &mut Request<'a>

where T: 'static,

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (error_generic_member_access)

Provides a value or other type with only static lifetimes computed using a closure.

Examples

Provides a String by cloning.

#![feature(error_generic_member_access)]

use core::error::Request;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct SomeConcreteType { field: String }

impl std::fmt::Display for SomeConcreteType {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "{} failed", self.field)
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for SomeConcreteType {
    fn provide<'a>(&'a self, request: &mut Request<'a>) {
        request.provide_value_with::<String>(|| self.field.clone());
    }
}

pub fn provide_ref<T>(&mut self, value: &'a T) -> &mut Request<'a>

where T: 'static + ?Sized,

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (error_generic_member_access)

Provides a reference. The referee type must be bounded by 'static, but may be unsized.

Examples

Provides a reference to a field as a &str.

#![feature(error_generic_member_access)]

use core::error::Request;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct SomeConcreteType { field: String }

impl std::fmt::Display for SomeConcreteType {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "{} failed", self.field)
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for SomeConcreteType {
    fn provide<'a>(&'a self, request: &mut Request<'a>) {
        request.provide_ref::<str>(&self.field);
    }
}

pub fn provide_ref_with<T>( &mut self, fulfil: impl FnOnce() -> &'a T, ) -> &mut Request<'a>

where T: 'static + ?Sized,

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (error_generic_member_access)

Provides a reference computed using a closure. The referee type must be bounded by 'static, but may be unsized.

Examples

Provides a reference to a field as a &str.

#![feature(error_generic_member_access)]

use core::error::Request;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct SomeConcreteType { business: String, party: String }
fn today_is_a_weekday() -> bool { true }

impl std::fmt::Display for SomeConcreteType {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "{} failed", self.business)
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for SomeConcreteType {
    fn provide<'a>(&'a self, request: &mut Request<'a>) {
        request.provide_ref_with::<str>(|| {
            if today_is_a_weekday() {
                &self.business
            } else {
                &self.party
            }
        });
    }
}

pub fn would_be_satisfied_by_value_of<T>(&self) -> bool

where T: 'static,

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (error_generic_member_access)

Checks if the Request would be satisfied if provided with a value of the specified type. If the type does not match or has already been provided, returns false.

Examples

Checks if a u8 still needs to be provided and then provides it.

#![feature(error_generic_member_access)]

use core::error::Request;
use core::error::request_value;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Parent(Option<u8>);

impl std::fmt::Display for Parent {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "a parent failed")
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for Parent {
    fn provide<'a>(&'a self, request: &mut Request<'a>) {
        if let Some(v) = self.0 {
            request.provide_value::<u8>(v);
        }
    }
}

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Child {
    parent: Parent,
}

impl Child {
    // Pretend that this takes a lot of resources to evaluate.
    fn an_expensive_computation(&self) -> Option<u8> {
        Some(99)
    }
}

impl std::fmt::Display for Child {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "child failed: \n  because of parent: {}", self.parent)
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for Child {
    fn provide<'a>(&'a self, request: &mut Request<'a>) {
        // In general, we don't know if this call will provide
        // an `u8` value or not...
        self.parent.provide(request);

        // ...so we check to see if the `u8` is needed before
        // we run our expensive computation.
        if request.would_be_satisfied_by_value_of::<u8>() {
            if let Some(v) = self.an_expensive_computation() {
                request.provide_value::<u8>(v);
            }
        }

        // The request will be satisfied now, regardless of if
        // the parent provided the value or we did.
        assert!(!request.would_be_satisfied_by_value_of::<u8>());
    }
}

let parent = Parent(Some(42));
let child = Child { parent };
assert_eq!(Some(42), request_value::<u8>(&child));

let parent = Parent(None);
let child = Child { parent };
assert_eq!(Some(99), request_value::<u8>(&child));

pub fn would_be_satisfied_by_ref_of<T>(&self) -> bool

where T: 'static + ?Sized,

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (error_generic_member_access)

Checks if the Request would be satisfied if provided with a reference to a value of the specified type.

If the type does not match or has already been provided, returns false.

Examples

Checks if a &str still needs to be provided and then provides it.

#![feature(error_generic_member_access)]

use core::error::Request;
use core::error::request_ref;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Parent(Option<String>);

impl std::fmt::Display for Parent {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "a parent failed")
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for Parent {
    fn provide<'a>(&'a self, request: &mut Request<'a>) {
        if let Some(v) = &self.0 {
            request.provide_ref::<str>(v);
        }
    }
}

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Child {
    parent: Parent,
    name: String,
}

impl Child {
    // Pretend that this takes a lot of resources to evaluate.
    fn an_expensive_computation(&self) -> Option<&str> {
        Some(&self.name)
    }
}

impl std::fmt::Display for Child {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "{} failed: \n  {}", self.name, self.parent)
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for Child {
    fn provide<'a>(&'a self, request: &mut Request<'a>) {
        // In general, we don't know if this call will provide
        // a `str` reference or not...
        self.parent.provide(request);

        // ...so we check to see if the `&str` is needed before
        // we run our expensive computation.
        if request.would_be_satisfied_by_ref_of::<str>() {
            if let Some(v) = self.an_expensive_computation() {
                request.provide_ref::<str>(v);
            }
        }

        // The request will be satisfied now, regardless of if
        // the parent provided the reference or we did.
        assert!(!request.would_be_satisfied_by_ref_of::<str>());
    }
}

let parent = Parent(Some("parent".into()));
let child = Child { parent, name: "child".into() };
assert_eq!(Some("parent"), request_ref::<str>(&child));

let parent = Parent(None);
let child = Child { parent, name: "child".into() };
assert_eq!(Some("child"), request_ref::<str>(&child));

Trait Implementations

impl<'a> Debug for Request<'a>

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result<(), Error>

Formats the value using the given formatter.