Rollup merge of #27521 - steveklabnik:doc_std_mem_forget, r=gankro

We were burying the reason to use this function below a bunch of caveats about
its usage. That's backwards. Why a function should be used belongs at the top of
the docs, not the bottom.

Also, add some extra links to related functions mentioned in the body.

/cc @abhijeetbhagat who  pointed this out on IRC
This commit is contained in:
Manish Goregaokar 2015-08-05 13:45:38 +05:30
commit 05083299fa

View file

@ -29,6 +29,19 @@ pub use intrinsics::transmute;
/// `mem::drop` function in that it **does not run the destructor**, leaking the
/// value and any resources that it owns.
///
/// There's only a few reasons to use this function. They mainly come
/// up in unsafe code or FFI code.
///
/// * You have an uninitialized value, perhaps for performance reasons, and
/// need to prevent the destructor from running on it.
/// * You have two copies of a value (like when writing something like
/// [`mem::swap`][swap]), but need the destructor to only run once to
/// prevent a double `free`.
/// * Transferring resources across [FFI][ffi] boundries.
///
/// [swap]: fn.swap.html
/// [ffi]: ../../book/ffi.html
///
/// # Safety
///
/// This function is not marked as `unsafe` as Rust does not guarantee that the
@ -52,20 +65,9 @@ pub use intrinsics::transmute;
/// * `mpsc::{Sender, Receiver}` cycles (they use `Arc` internally)
/// * Panicking destructors are likely to leak local resources
///
/// # When To Use
///
/// There's only a few reasons to use this function. They mainly come
/// up in unsafe code or FFI code.
///
/// * You have an uninitialized value, perhaps for performance reasons, and
/// need to prevent the destructor from running on it.
/// * You have two copies of a value (like `std::mem::swap`), but need the
/// destructor to only run once to prevent a double free.
/// * Transferring resources across FFI boundries.
///
/// # Example
///
/// Leak some heap memory by never deallocating it.
/// Leak some heap memory by never deallocating it:
///
/// ```rust
/// use std::mem;
@ -74,7 +76,7 @@ pub use intrinsics::transmute;
/// mem::forget(heap_memory);
/// ```
///
/// Leak an I/O object, never closing the file.
/// Leak an I/O object, never closing the file:
///
/// ```rust,no_run
/// use std::mem;
@ -84,7 +86,7 @@ pub use intrinsics::transmute;
/// mem::forget(file);
/// ```
///
/// The swap function uses forget to good effect.
/// The `mem::swap` function uses `mem::forget` to good effect:
///
/// ```rust
/// use std::mem;