diff --git a/src/rustc/middle/borrowck.rs b/src/rustc/middle/borrowck.rs
index 4bbbb2bcb6ce..763c831265fc 100644
--- a/src/rustc/middle/borrowck.rs
+++ b/src/rustc/middle/borrowck.rs
@@ -1,149 +1,217 @@
 /*!
- * # Borrow check
- *
- * This pass is in job of enforcing *memory safety* and *purity*.  As
- * memory safety is by far the more complex topic, I'll focus on that in
- * this description, but purity will be covered later on. In the context
- * of Rust, memory safety means three basic things:
- *
- * - no writes to immutable memory;
- * - all pointers point to non-freed memory;
- * - all pointers point to memory of the same type as the pointer.
- *
- * The last point might seem confusing: after all, for the most part,
- * this condition is guaranteed by the type check.  However, there are
- * two cases where the type check effectively delegates to borrow check.
- *
- * The first case has to do with enums.  If there is a pointer to the
- * interior of an enum, and the enum is in a mutable location (such as a
- * local variable or field declared to be mutable), it is possible that
- * the user will overwrite the enum with a new value of a different
- * variant, and thus effectively change the type of the memory that the
- * pointer is pointing at.
- *
- * The second case has to do with mutability.  Basically, the type
- * checker has only a limited understanding of mutability.  It will allow
- * (for example) the user to get an immutable pointer with the address of
- * a mutable local variable.  It will also allow a `@mut T` or `~mut T`
- * pointer to be borrowed as a `&r.T` pointer.  These seeming oversights
- * are in fact intentional; they allow the user to temporarily treat a
- * mutable value as immutable.  It is up to the borrow check to guarantee
- * that the value in question is not in fact mutated during the lifetime
- * `r` of the reference.
- *
- * # Summary of the safety check
- *
- * In order to enforce mutability, the borrow check has three tricks up
- * its sleeve.
- *
- * First, data which is uniquely tied to the current stack frame (that'll
- * be defined shortly) is tracked very precisely.  This means that, for
- * example, if an immutable pointer to a mutable local variable is
- * created, the borrowck will simply check for assignments to that
- * particular local variable: no other memory is affected.
- *
- * Second, if the data is not uniquely tied to the stack frame, it may
- * still be possible to ensure its validity by rooting garbage collected
- * pointers at runtime.  For example, if there is a mutable local
- * variable `x` of type `@T`, and its contents are borrowed with an
- * expression like `&*x`, then the value of `x` will be rooted (today,
- * that means its ref count will be temporary increased) for the lifetime
- * of the reference that is created.  This means that the pointer remains
- * valid even if `x` is reassigned.
- *
- * Finally, if neither of these two solutions are applicable, then we
- * require that all operations within the scope of the reference be
- * *pure*.  A pure operation is effectively one that does not write to
- * any aliasable memory.  This means that it is still possible to write
- * to local variables or other data that is uniquely tied to the stack
- * frame (there's that term again; formal definition still pending) but
- * not to data reached via a `&T` or `@T` pointer.  Such writes could
- * possibly have the side-effect of causing the data which must remain
- * valid to be overwritten.
- *
- * # Possible future directions
- *
- * There are numerous ways that the `borrowck` could be strengthened, but
- * these are the two most likely:
- *
- * - flow-sensitivity: we do not currently consider flow at all but only
- *   block-scoping.  This means that innocent code like the following is
- *   rejected:
- *
- *       let mut x: int;
- *       ...
- *       x = 5;
- *       let y: &int = &x; // immutable ptr created
- *       ...
- *
- *   The reason is that the scope of the pointer `y` is the entire
- *   enclosing block, and the assignment `x = 5` occurs within that
- *   block.  The analysis is not smart enough to see that `x = 5` always
- *   happens before the immutable pointer is created.  This is relatively
- *   easy to fix and will surely be fixed at some point.
- *
- * - finer-grained purity checks: currently, our fallback for
- *   guaranteeing random references into mutable, aliasable memory is to
- *   require *total purity*.  This is rather strong.  We could use local
- *   type-based alias analysis to distinguish writes that could not
- *   possibly invalid the references which must be guaranteed.  This
- *   would only work within the function boundaries; function calls would
- *   still require total purity.  This seems less likely to be
- *   implemented in the short term as it would make the code
- *   significantly more complex; there is currently no code to analyze
- *   the types and determine the possible impacts of a write.
- *
- * # Terminology
- *
- * A **loan** is .
- *
- * # How the code works
- *
- * The borrow check code is divided into several major modules, each of
- * which is documented in its own file.
- *
- * The `gather_loans` and `check_loans` are the two major passes of the
- * analysis.  The `gather_loans` pass runs over the IR once to determine
- * what memory must remain valid and for how long.  Its name is a bit of
- * a misnomer; it does in fact gather up the set of loans which are
- * granted, but it also determines when @T pointers must be rooted and
- * for which scopes purity must be required.
- *
- * The `check_loans` pass walks the IR and examines the loans and purity
- * requirements computed in `gather_loans`.  It checks to ensure that (a)
- * the conditions of all loans are honored; (b) no contradictory loans
- * were granted (for example, loaning out the same memory as mutable and
- * immutable simultaneously); and (c) any purity requirements are
- * honored.
- *
- * The remaining modules are helper modules used by `gather_loans` and
- * `check_loans`:
- *
- * - `categorization` has the job of analyzing an expression to determine
- *   what kind of memory is used in evaluating it (for example, where
- *   dereferences occur and what kind of pointer is dereferenced; whether
- *   the memory is mutable; etc)
- * - `loan` determines when data uniquely tied to the stack frame can be
- *   loaned out.
- * - `preserve` determines what actions (if any) must be taken to preserve
- *   aliasable data.  This is the code which decides when to root
- *   an @T pointer or to require purity.
- *
- * # Maps that are created
- *
- * Borrowck results in two maps.
- *
- * - `root_map`: identifies those expressions or patterns whose result
- *   needs to be rooted.  Conceptually the root_map maps from an
- *   expression or pattern node to a `node_id` identifying the scope for
- *   which the expression must be rooted (this `node_id` should identify
- *   a block or call).  The actual key to the map is not an expression id,
- *   however, but a `root_map_key`, which combines an expression id with a
- *   deref count and is used to cope with auto-deref.
- *
- * - `mutbl_map`: identifies those local variables which are modified or
- *   moved. This is used by trans to guarantee that such variables are
- *   given a memory location and not used as immediates.
+# Borrow check
+
+This pass is in job of enforcing *memory safety* and *purity*.  As
+memory safety is by far the more complex topic, I'll focus on that in
+this description, but purity will be covered later on. In the context
+of Rust, memory safety means three basic things:
+
+- no writes to immutable memory;
+- all pointers point to non-freed memory;
+- all pointers point to memory of the same type as the pointer.
+
+The last point might seem confusing: after all, for the most part,
+this condition is guaranteed by the type check.  However, there are
+two cases where the type check effectively delegates to borrow check.
+
+The first case has to do with enums.  If there is a pointer to the
+interior of an enum, and the enum is in a mutable location (such as a
+local variable or field declared to be mutable), it is possible that
+the user will overwrite the enum with a new value of a different
+variant, and thus effectively change the type of the memory that the
+pointer is pointing at.
+
+The second case has to do with mutability.  Basically, the type
+checker has only a limited understanding of mutability.  It will allow
+(for example) the user to get an immutable pointer with the address of
+a mutable local variable.  It will also allow a `@mut T` or `~mut T`
+pointer to be borrowed as a `&r.T` pointer.  These seeming oversights
+are in fact intentional; they allow the user to temporarily treat a
+mutable value as immutable.  It is up to the borrow check to guarantee
+that the value in question is not in fact mutated during the lifetime
+`r` of the reference.
+
+# Definition of unstable memory
+
+The primary danger to safety arises due to *unstable memory*.
+Unstable memory is memory whose validity or type may change as a
+result of an assignment, move, or a variable going out of scope.
+There are two cases in Rust where memory is unstable: the contents of
+unique boxes and enums.
+
+Unique boxes are unstable because when the variable containing the
+unique box is re-assigned, moves, or goes out of scope, the unique box
+is freed or---in the case of a move---potentially given to another
+task.  In either case, if there is an extant and usable pointer into
+the box, then safety guarantees would be compromised.
+
+Enum values are unstable because they are reassigned the types of
+their contents may change if they are assigned with a different
+variant than they had previously.
+
+# Safety criteria that must be enforced
+
+Whenever a piece of memory is borrowed for lifetime L, there are two
+things which the borrow checker must guarantee.  First, it must
+guarantee that the memory address will remain allocated (and owned by
+the current task) for the entirety of the lifetime L.  Second, it must
+guarantee that the type of the data will not change for the entirety
+of the lifetime L.  In exchange, the region-based type system will
+guarantee that the pointer is not used outside the lifetime L.  These
+guarantees are to some extent independent but are also inter-related.
+
+In some cases, the type of a pointer cannot be invalidated but the
+lifetime can.  For example, imagine a pointer to the interior of
+a shared box like:
+
+    let mut x = @mut {f: 5, g: 6};
+    let y = &mut x.f;
+
+Here, a pointer was created to the interior of a shared box which
+contains a record.  Even if `*x` were to be mutated like so:
+
+    *x = {f: 6, g: 7};
+
+This would cause `*y` to change from 5 to 6, but the pointer pointer
+`y` remains valid.  It still points at an integer even if that integer
+has been overwritten.
+
+However, if we were to reassign `x` itself, like so:
+
+    x = @{f: 6, g: 7};
+
+This could potentially invalidate `y`, because if `x` were the final
+reference to the shared box, then that memory would be released and
+now `y` points at freed memory.  (We will see that to prevent this
+scenario we will *root* shared boxes that reside in mutable memory
+whose contents are borrowed; rooting means that we create a temporary
+to ensure that the box is not collected).
+
+In other cases, like an enum on the stack, the memory cannot be freed
+but its type can change:
+
+    let mut x = some(5);
+    alt x {
+      some(ref y) => { ... }
+      none => { ... }
+    }
+
+Here as before, the pointer `y` would be invalidated if we were to
+reassign `x` to `none`.  (We will see that this case is prevented
+because borrowck tracks data which resides on the stack and prevents
+variables from reassigned if there may be pointers to their interior)
+
+Finally, in some cases, both dangers can arise.  For example, something
+like the following:
+
+    let mut x = ~some(5);
+    alt x {
+      ~some(ref y) => { ... }
+      ~none => { ... }
+    }
+
+In this case, if `x` to be reassigned or `*x` were to be mutated, then
+the pointer `y` would be invalided.  (This case is also prevented by
+borrowck tracking data which is owned by the current stack frame)
+
+# Summary of the safety check
+
+In order to enforce mutability, the borrow check has a few tricks up
+its sleeve:
+
+- When data is owned by the current stack frame, we can identify every
+  possible assignment to a local variable and simply prevent
+  potentially dangerous assignments directly.
+
+- If data is owned by a shared box, we can root the box to increase
+  its lifetime.
+
+- If data is found within a borrowed pointer, we can assume that the
+  data will remain live for the entirety of the borrowed pointer.
+
+- We can rely on the fact that pure actions (such as calling pure
+  functions) do not mutate data which is not owned by the current
+  stack frame.
+
+# Possible future directions
+
+There are numerous ways that the `borrowck` could be strengthened, but
+these are the two most likely:
+
+- flow-sensitivity: we do not currently consider flow at all but only
+  block-scoping.  This means that innocent code like the following is
+  rejected:
+
+      let mut x: int;
+      ...
+      x = 5;
+      let y: &int = &x; // immutable ptr created
+      ...
+
+  The reason is that the scope of the pointer `y` is the entire
+  enclosing block, and the assignment `x = 5` occurs within that
+  block.  The analysis is not smart enough to see that `x = 5` always
+  happens before the immutable pointer is created.  This is relatively
+  easy to fix and will surely be fixed at some point.
+
+- finer-grained purity checks: currently, our fallback for
+  guaranteeing random references into mutable, aliasable memory is to
+  require *total purity*.  This is rather strong.  We could use local
+  type-based alias analysis to distinguish writes that could not
+  possibly invalid the references which must be guaranteed.  This
+  would only work within the function boundaries; function calls would
+  still require total purity.  This seems less likely to be
+  implemented in the short term as it would make the code
+  significantly more complex; there is currently no code to analyze
+  the types and determine the possible impacts of a write.
+
+# How the code works
+
+The borrow check code is divided into several major modules, each of
+which is documented in its own file.
+
+The `gather_loans` and `check_loans` are the two major passes of the
+analysis.  The `gather_loans` pass runs over the IR once to determine
+what memory must remain valid and for how long.  Its name is a bit of
+a misnomer; it does in fact gather up the set of loans which are
+granted, but it also determines when @T pointers must be rooted and
+for which scopes purity must be required.
+
+The `check_loans` pass walks the IR and examines the loans and purity
+requirements computed in `gather_loans`.  It checks to ensure that (a)
+the conditions of all loans are honored; (b) no contradictory loans
+were granted (for example, loaning out the same memory as mutable and
+immutable simultaneously); and (c) any purity requirements are
+honored.
+
+The remaining modules are helper modules used by `gather_loans` and
+`check_loans`:
+
+- `categorization` has the job of analyzing an expression to determine
+  what kind of memory is used in evaluating it (for example, where
+  dereferences occur and what kind of pointer is dereferenced; whether
+  the memory is mutable; etc)
+- `loan` determines when data uniquely tied to the stack frame can be
+  loaned out.
+- `preserve` determines what actions (if any) must be taken to preserve
+  aliasable data.  This is the code which decides when to root
+  an @T pointer or to require purity.
+
+# Maps that are created
+
+Borrowck results in two maps.
+
+- `root_map`: identifies those expressions or patterns whose result
+  needs to be rooted.  Conceptually the root_map maps from an
+  expression or pattern node to a `node_id` identifying the scope for
+  which the expression must be rooted (this `node_id` should identify
+  a block or call).  The actual key to the map is not an expression id,
+  however, but a `root_map_key`, which combines an expression id with a
+  deref count and is used to cope with auto-deref.
+
+- `mutbl_map`: identifies those local variables which are modified or
+  moved. This is used by trans to guarantee that such variables are
+  given a memory location and not used as immediates.
  */
 
 import syntax::ast;
diff --git a/src/rustc/middle/borrowck/categorization.rs b/src/rustc/middle/borrowck/categorization.rs
index e7976cac2e64..524a3394e016 100644
--- a/src/rustc/middle/borrowck/categorization.rs
+++ b/src/rustc/middle/borrowck/categorization.rs
@@ -361,12 +361,18 @@ impl public_methods for borrowck_ctxt {
 
         ret alt deref_kind(self.tcx, base_cmt.ty) {
           deref_ptr(ptr) {
-            // make deref of vectors explicit, as explained in the comment at
-            // the head of this section
-            let deref_lp = base_cmt.lp.map(|lp| @lp_deref(lp, ptr) );
+            // (a) the contents are loanable if the base is loanable
+            // and this is a *unique* vector
+            let deref_lp = alt ptr {
+              uniq_ptr => {base_cmt.lp.map(|lp| @lp_deref(lp, uniq_ptr))}
+              _ => {none}
+            };
+
+            // (b) the deref is explicit in the resulting cmt
             let deref_cmt = @{id:expr.id, span:expr.span,
-                              cat:cat_deref(base_cmt, 0u, ptr), lp:deref_lp,
-                              mutbl:m_imm, ty:mt.ty};
+              cat:cat_deref(base_cmt, 0u, ptr), lp:deref_lp,
+              mutbl:m_imm, ty:mt.ty};
+
             comp(expr, deref_cmt, base_cmt.ty, mt)
           }