Blog for Rust 1.50.0

posts/2021-02-11-Rust-1.50.0.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Announcing Rust 1.50.0"
+author: The Rust Release Team
+release: true
+---
+
+The Rust team is happy to announce a new version of Rust, 1.50.0. Rust is a
+programming language that is empowering everyone to build reliable and
+efficient software.
+
+If you have a previous version of Rust installed via rustup, getting Rust
+1.50.0 is as easy as:
+
+```console
+rustup update stable
+```
+
+If you don't have it already, you can [get `rustup`][install]
+from the appropriate page on our website, and check out the
+[detailed release notes for 1.50.0][notes] on GitHub.
+
+[install]: https://www.rust-lang.org/install.html
+[notes]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/master/RELEASES.md#version-1500-2021-02-11
+
+## What's in 1.50.0 stable
+
+For this release, we have improved array indexing, expanded safe access to union fields, and added to the standard library.
+See the [detailed release notes][notes] to learn about other changes
+not covered by this post.
+
+### Const-generic array indexing
+
+Continuing the march toward stable `const` generics, this release adds
+implementations of `ops::Index` and `IndexMut` for arrays `[T; N]` for
+_any_ length of `const N`. The indexing operator `[]` already worked on
+arrays through built-in compiler magic, but at the type level, arrays
+didn't actually implement the library traits until now.
+
+```rust
+fn second<C>(container: &C) -> &C::Output
+where
+    C: std::ops::Index<usize> + ?Sized,
+{
+    &container[1]
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    let array: [i32; 3] = [1, 2, 3];
+    assert_eq!(second(&array[..]), &2); // slices worked before
+    assert_eq!(second(&array), &2); // now it also works directly
+}
+```
+
+### `const` value repetition for arrays
+
+Arrays in Rust can be written either as a list `[a, b, c]` or a repetition `[x; N]`.
+For lengths `N` greater than one, repetition has only been allowed for `x`s that are `Copy`,
+and [RFC 2203] sought to allow any `const` expression there. However,
+while that feature was unstable for arbitrary expressions, its implementation
+since Rust 1.38 accidentally allowed stable use of `const` _values_ in array
+repetition.
+
+```rust
+fn main() {
+    // This is not allowed, because `Option<Vec<i32>>` does not implement `Copy`.
+    let array: [Option<Vec<i32>>; 10] = [None; 10];
+
+    const NONE: Option<Vec<i32>> = None;
+    const EMPTY: Option<Vec<i32>> = Some(Vec::new());
+
+    // However, repeating a `const` value is allowed!
+    let nones = [NONE; 10];
+    let empties = [EMPTY; 10];
+}
+```
+
+In Rust 1.50, that stabilization is formally acknowledged, so you may use this
+construct without fear. In the future, to avoid such "temporary" named
+constants, you can look forward to inline `const` expressions per [RFC 2920].
+
+[RFC 2203]: https://rust-lang.github.io/rfcs/2203-const-repeat-expr.html
+[RFC 2920]: https://rust-lang.github.io/rfcs/2920-inline-const.html
+
+### Safe assignments to `ManuallyDrop<T>` union fields
+
+Rust 1.49 made it possible to add `ManuallyDrop<T>` fields to a `union` as part
+of allowing `Drop` for unions at all. However, unions don't drop old values
+when a field is assigned, since they don't know which variant was formerly
+valid, so safe Rust has limited this to `Copy` types only, which never `Drop`.
+Of course, `ManuallyDrop<T>` also doesn't need to `Drop`, so now Rust 1.50
+allows safe assignments to these fields as well.
+
+### A niche for `File` on Unix platforms
+
+Some types in Rust have specific limitations on what is considered a
+valid value, which may not cover the entire range of possible memory
+values. We call any remaining invalid value a [niche], and this space
+may be used for type layout optimizations. For example, in Rust 1.28
+we introduced `NonZero` integer types (like `NonZeroU8`) where `0` is a niche, and this allowed
+`Option<NonZero>` to use `0` to represent `None` with no extra memory.
+
+On Unix platforms, Rust's `File` is simply made of the system's integer
+file descriptor, and this happens to have a possible niche
+as well because it can never be `-1`! System calls which return a file
+descriptor use `-1` to indicate that an error occurred (check `errno`)
+so it's never possible for `-1` to be a real file descriptor. Starting
+in Rust 1.50 this niche is added to the type's definition so it can be
+used in layout optimizations too. It follows that `Option<File>` will
+now have the same size as `File` itself!
+
+[niche]: https://rust-lang.github.io/unsafe-code-guidelines/glossary.html#niche
+
+### Library changes
+
+In Rust 1.50.0, there are nine new stable functions:
+
+- [`bool::then`]
+- [`btree_map::Entry::or_insert_with_key`]
+- [`f32::clamp`]
+- [`f64::clamp`]
+- [`hash_map::Entry::or_insert_with_key`]
+- [`Ord::clamp`]
+- [`RefCell::take`]
+- [`slice::fill`]
+- [`UnsafeCell::get_mut`]
+
+And quite a few existing functions were made `const`:
+
+- [`IpAddr::is_ipv4`]
+- [`IpAddr::is_ipv6`]
+- [`Layout::size`]
+- [`Layout::align`]
+- [`Layout::from_size_align`]
+- `pow` for all integer types.
+- `checked_pow` for all integer types.
+- `saturating_pow` for all integer types.
+- `wrapping_pow` for all integer types.
+- `next_power_of_two` for all unsigned integer types.
+- `checked_power_of_two` for all unsigned integer types.
+
+See the [detailed release notes][notes] to learn about other changes.
+
+[`IpAddr::is_ipv4`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/net/enum.IpAddr.html#method.is_ipv4
+[`IpAddr::is_ipv6`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/net/enum.IpAddr.html#method.is_ipv6
+[`Layout::align`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/alloc/struct.Layout.html#method.align
+[`Layout::from_size_align`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/alloc/struct.Layout.html#method.from_size_align
+[`Layout::size`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/alloc/struct.Layout.html#method.size
+[`Ord::clamp`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/cmp/trait.Ord.html#method.clamp
+[`RefCell::take`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/cell/struct.RefCell.html#method.take
+[`UnsafeCell::get_mut`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/cell/struct.UnsafeCell.html#method.get_mut
+[`bool::then`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/primitive.bool.html#method.then
+[`btree_map::Entry::or_insert_with_key`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/collections/btree_map/enum.Entry.html#method.or_insert_with_key
+[`f32::clamp`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/primitive.f32.html#method.clamp
+[`f64::clamp`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/primitive.f64.html#method.clamp
+[`hash_map::Entry::or_insert_with_key`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/collections/hash_map/enum.Entry.html#method.or_insert_with_key
+[`slice::fill`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/primitive.slice.html#method.fill
+
+### Other changes
+
+[relnotes-cargo]: https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#cargo-150-2021-02-11
+[relnotes-clippy]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-clippy/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#rust-150
+
+There are other changes in the Rust 1.50.0 release: check out what changed in
+[Rust][notes], [Cargo][relnotes-cargo], and [Clippy][relnotes-clippy].
+
+## Contributors to 1.50.0
+
+Many people came together to create Rust 1.50.0. We couldn't have done it
+without all of you. [Thanks!](https://thanks.rust-lang.org/rust/1.50.0/)