Send Approximation

Some async fn state machines are safe to be sent across threads, while others are not. Whether or not an async fn Future is Send is determined by whether a non-Send type is held across an .await point. The compiler does its best to approximate when values may be held across an .await point, but this analysis is too conservative in a number of places today.

For example, consider a simple non-Send type, perhaps a type which contains an Rc:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use std::rc::Rc;

#[derive(Default)]
struct NotSend(Rc<()>);
}

Variables of type NotSend can briefly appear as temporaries in async fns even when the resulting Future type returned by the async fn must be Send:

use std::rc::Rc;
#[derive(Default)]
struct NotSend(Rc<()>);
async fn bar() {}
async fn foo() {
    NotSend::default();
    bar().await;
}

fn require_send(_: impl Send) {}

fn main() {
    require_send(foo());
}

However, if we change foo to store NotSend in a variable, this example no longer compiles:

use std::rc::Rc;
#[derive(Default)]
struct NotSend(Rc<()>);
async fn bar() {}
async fn foo() {
    let x = NotSend::default();
    bar().await;
}
fn require_send(_: impl Send) {}
fn main() {
   require_send(foo());
}

error[E0277]: `std::rc::Rc<()>` cannot be sent between threads safely
  --> src/main.rs:15:5
   |
15 |     require_send(foo());
   |     ^^^^^^^^^^^^ `std::rc::Rc<()>` cannot be sent between threads safely
   |
   = help: within `impl std::future::Future`, the trait `std::marker::Send` is not implemented for `std::rc::Rc<()>`
   = note: required because it appears within the type `NotSend`
   = note: required because it appears within the type `{NotSend, impl std::future::Future, ()}`
   = note: required because it appears within the type `[static generator@src/main.rs:7:16: 10:2 {NotSend, impl std::future::Future, ()}]`
   = note: required because it appears within the type `std::future::GenFuture<[static generator@src/main.rs:7:16: 10:2 {NotSend, impl std::future::Future, ()}]>`
   = note: required because it appears within the type `impl std::future::Future`
   = note: required because it appears within the type `impl std::future::Future`
note: required by `require_send`
  --> src/main.rs:12:1
   |
12 | fn require_send(_: impl Send) {}
   | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

error: aborting due to previous error

For more information about this error, try `rustc --explain E0277`.

This error is correct. If we store x into a variable, it won't be dropped until after the .await, at which point the async fn may be running on a different thread. Since Rc is not Send, allowing it to travel across threads would be unsound. One simple solution to this would be to drop the Rc before the .await, but unfortunately that does not work today.

In order to successfully work around this issue, you may have to introduce a block scope encapsulating any non-Send variables. This makes it easier for the compiler to tell that these variables do not live across an .await point.

use std::rc::Rc;
#[derive(Default)]
struct NotSend(Rc<()>);
async fn bar() {}
async fn foo() {
    {
        let x = NotSend::default();
    }
    bar().await;
}
fn require_send(_: impl Send) {}
fn main() {
   require_send(foo());
}