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[#]: subject: "Asynchronous programming in Rust"
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[#]: via: "https://opensource.com/article/22/10/asynchronous-programming-rust"
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[#]: author: "Stephan Avenwedde https://opensource.com/users/hansic99"
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[#]: collector: "lkxed"
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[#]: translator: " "
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[#]: reviewer: " "
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[#]: publisher: " "
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[#]: url: " "
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Asynchronous programming in Rust
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======
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Take a look at how async-await works in Rust.
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![Ferris the crab under the sea, unofficial logo for Rust programming language][1]
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Image by: Opensource.com
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Asynchronous programming: Incredibly useful but difficult to learn. You can't avoid async programming to create a fast and reactive application. Applications with a high amount of file or network I/O or with a GUI that should always be reactive benefit tremendously from async programming. Tasks can be executed in the background while the user still makes inputs. Async programming is possible in many languages, each with different styles and syntax. [Rust][2] is no exception. In Rust, this feature is called *async-await*.
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While *async-await* has been an integral part of Rust since version 1.39.0, most applications depend on community crates. In Rust, except for a larger binary, *async-await* comes with zero costs. This article gives you an insight into asynchronous programming in Rust.
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### Under the hood
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To get a basic understanding of *async-await* in Rust, you literally start in the middle.
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The center of *async-await* is the [future][3] trait, which declares the method *poll* (I cover this in more detail below). If a value can be computed asynchronously, the related type should implement the *future* trait. The *poll* method is called repeatedly until the final value is available.
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At this point, you could repeatedly call the *poll* method from your synchronous application manually in order to get the final value. However, since I'm talking about asynchronous programming, you can hand over this task to another component: the runtime. So before you can make use of the *async* syntax, a runtime must be present. I use the runtime from the [tokio][4] community crate in the following examples.
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A handy way of making the tokio runtime available is to use the `#[tokio::main]` macro on your main function:
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```
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#[tokio::main]
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async fn main(){
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println!("Start!");
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sleep(Duration::from_secs(1)).await;
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println!("End after 1 second");
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}
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```
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When the runtime is available, you can now *await* futures. Awaiting means that further executions stop here as long as the *future* needs to be completed. The *await* method causes the runtime to invoke the *poll* method, which will drive the *future* to completion.
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In the above example, the tokios [sleep][5] function returns a *future* that finishes when the specified duration has passed. By awaiting this future, the related *poll* method is repeatedly called until the *future* completes. Furthermore, the *main()* function also returns a *future* because of the `async` keyword before the **fn**.
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So if you see a function marked with `async`**:**
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```
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async fn foo() -> usize { /**/ }
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```
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Then it is just syntactic sugar for:
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```
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fn foo() -> impl Future<Output = usize> { async { /**/ } }
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```
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### Pinning and boxing
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To remove some of the shrouds and clouds of *async-await* in Rust, you must understand *pinning* and *boxing*.
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If you are dealing with *async-await*, you will relatively quickly step over the terms boxing and pinning. Since I find that the available explanations on the subject are rather difficult to understand, I have set myself the goal of explaining the issue more easily.
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Sometimes it is necessary to have objects that are guaranteed not to be moved in memory. This comes into effect when you have a self-referential type:
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```
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struct MustBePinned {
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a: int16,
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b: &int16
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}
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```
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If member **b** is a reference (pointer) to member **a** of the same instance, then reference **b** becomes invalid when the instance is moved because the location of member **a** has changed but **b** still points to the previous location. You can find a more comprehensive example of a *self-referential* type in the [Rust Async book][6]. All you need to know now is that an instance of *MustBePinned* should not be moved in memory. Types like *MustBePinned* do not implement the *Unpin* trait, which would allow them to move within memory safely. In other words, *MustBePinned* is *!Unpin*.
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Back to the future: By default, a *future* is also *!Unpin*; thus, it should not be moved in memory. So how do you handle those types? You pin and box them.
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The [Pin<T>][7] type wraps pointer types, guaranteeing that the values behind the pointer won't be moved. The **Pin<T>** type ensures this by not providing a mutable reference of the wrapped type. The type will be pinned for the lifetime of the object. If you accidentally pin a type that implements *Unpin* (which is safe to move), it won't have any effect.
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In practice: If you want to return a *future* (*!Unpin*) from a function, you must box it. Using [Box<T>][8] causes the type to be allocated on the heap instead of the stack and thus ensures that it can outlive the current function without being moved. In particular, if you want to hand over a *future*, you can only hand over a pointer to it as the *future* must be of type **Pin<Box<dyn Future>>**.
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Using *async-wait*, you will certainly stumble upon this boxing and pinning syntax. To wrap this topic up, you just have to remember this:
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* Rust does not know whether a type can be safely moved.
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* Types that shouldn't be moved must be wrapped inside [Pin<T>][9].
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* Most types are [Unpin][10]ned types. They implement the trait Unpin and can be freely moved within memory.
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* If a type is wrapped inside [Pin<T>][11] and the wrapped type is !Unpin, it is not possible to get a mutable reference out of it.
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* Futures created by the async keyword are !Unpin and thus must be pinned.
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### Future trait
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In the [future][12] trait, everything comes together:
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```
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pub trait Future {
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type Output;
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fn poll(self: Pin<&mut Self>, cx: &mut Context<'_>) -> Poll<Self::Output>;
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}
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```
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Here is a simple example of how to implement the *future* trait:
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```
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struct MyCounterFuture {
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cnt : u32,
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cnt_final : u32
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}
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impl MyCounterFuture {
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pub fn new(final_value : u32) -> Self {
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Self {
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cnt : 0,
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cnt_final : final_value
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}
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}
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}
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impl Future for MyCounterFuture {
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type Output = u32;
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fn poll(mut self: Pin<&mut Self>, cx: &mut Context<'_>) -> Poll<u32>{
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self.cnt += 1;
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if self.cnt >= self.cnt_final {
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println!("Counting finished");
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return Poll::Ready(self.cnt_final);
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}
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cx.waker().wake_by_ref();
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Poll::Pending
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}
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}
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#[tokio::main]
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async fn main(){
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let my_counter = MyCounterFuture::new(42);
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let final_value = my_counter.await;
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println!("Final value: {}", final_value);
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}
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```
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Here is a simple example of how the *future* trait is implemented manually: The *future* is initialized with a value to which it shall count, stored in **cnt_final**. Each time the *poll* method is invoked, the internal value **cnt** gets incremented by one. If **cnt** is less than **cnt_final**, the future signals the [waker][13] of the runtime that the *future* is ready to be polled again. The return value of `Poll::Pending` signals that the *future* has not completed yet. After **cnt** is *>=* **cnt_final**, the *poll* function returns with `Poll::Ready`, signaling that the *future* has completed and providing the final value.
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This is just a simple example, and of course, there are other things to take care of. If you consider creating your own futures, I highly suggest reading the chapter [Async in depth][14] in the documentation of the tokio crate.
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### Wrap up
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Before I wrap things up, here is some additional information that I consider useful:
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* Create a new pinned and boxed type using [Box::pin][15].
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* The [futures][16] crate provides the type [BoxFuture][17] which lets you define a future as return type of a function.
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* The [async_trait][18] allows you to define an async function in traits (which is currently not allowed).
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* The [pin-utils][19] crate provides macros to pin values.
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* The tokios [try_join!][20] macro (a)waits on multiple futures which return a [Result<T, E>][21].
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Once the first hurdles have been overcome, async programming in Rust is straightforward. You don't even have to implement the *future* trait in your own types if you can outsource code that can be executed in parallel in an async function. In Rust, single-threaded and multi-threaded runtimes are available, so you can benefit from async programming even in embedded environments.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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via: https://opensource.com/article/22/10/asynchronous-programming-rust
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作者：[Stephan Avenwedde][a]
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选题：[lkxed][b]
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译者：[译者ID](https://github.com/译者ID)
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校对：[校对者ID](https://github.com/校对者ID)
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本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出
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[a]: https://opensource.com/users/hansic99
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[b]: https://github.com/lkxed
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[1]: https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/rust_programming_crab_sea.png
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[2]: https://opensource.com/article/20/12/learn-rust
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[3]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/future/trait.Future.html
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[4]: https://tokio.rs/
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[5]: https://docs.rs/tokio/latest/tokio/time/fn.sleep.html
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[6]: https://rust-lang.github.io/async-book/04_pinning/01_chapter.html
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[7]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/pin/struct.Pin.html
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[8]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/boxed/struct.Box.html
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[9]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/pin/struct.Pin.html
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[10]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/marker/trait.Unpin.html#
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[11]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/pin/struct.Pin.html
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[12]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/future/trait.Future.html
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[13]: https://tokio.rs/tokio/tutorial/async#wakers
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[14]: https://tokio.rs/tokio/tutorial/async
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[15]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/boxed/struct.Box.html#method.pin
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[16]: https://crates.io/crates/futures
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[17]: https://docs.rs/futures/latest/futures/future/type.BoxFuture.html
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[18]: https://docs.rs/async-trait/latest/async_trait/
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[19]: https://crates.io/crates/pin-utils
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[20]: https://docs.rs/tokio/latest/tokio/macro.try_join.html
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[21]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/result/
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