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caution against ptr-to-int transmutes #95547

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Apr 6, 2022
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10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions library/core/src/intrinsics.rs
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -991,6 +991,16 @@ extern "rust-intrinsic" {
/// let ptr_num_cast = ptr as *const i32 as usize;
/// ```
///
/// Note that using `transmute` to turn a pointer to a `usize` is (as noted above) [undefined
/// behavior][ub] in `const` contexts. Also outside of consts, this operation might not behave
/// as expected -- this is touching on many unspecified aspects of the Rust memory model.
/// Depending on what the code is doing, the following alternatives are preferrable to
/// pointer-to-integer transmutation:
/// - If the code just wants to store data of arbitrary type in some buffer and needs to pick a
/// type for that buffer, it can use [`MaybeUninit`][mem::MaybeUninit].
/// - If the code actually wants to work on the address the pointer points to, it can use `as`
/// casts or [`ptr.addr()`][pointer::addr].
///
/// Turning a `*mut T` into an `&mut T`:
///
/// ```
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