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std: clarify Clone trait documentation about duplication semantics
This commit improves the Clone trait documentation to address confusion around what "duplication" means for different types, especially for smart pointers like Arc<Mutex<T>>. Signed-off-by: xizheyin <xizheyin@smail.nju.edu.cn>
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library/core/src/clone.rs

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@@ -38,7 +38,16 @@
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mod uninit;
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/// A common trait for the ability to explicitly duplicate an object.
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/// A common trait that allows explicit creation of a duplicate value.
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///
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/// Calling [`clone`] always produces a new value.
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/// However, for types that are references to other data (such as smart pointers or references),
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/// the new value may still point to the same underlying data, rather than duplicating it.
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/// See [`Clone::clone`] for more details.
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///
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/// This distinction is especially important when using `#[derive(Clone)]` on structs containing
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/// smart pointers like `Arc<Mutex<T>>` - the cloned struct will share mutable state with the
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/// original.
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///
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/// Differs from [`Copy`] in that [`Copy`] is implicit and an inexpensive bit-wise copy, while
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/// `Clone` is always explicit and may or may not be expensive. In order to enforce
@@ -147,7 +156,16 @@ mod uninit;
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#[rustc_diagnostic_item = "Clone"]
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#[rustc_trivial_field_reads]
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pub trait Clone: Sized {
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/// Returns a copy of the value.
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/// Returns a duplicate of the value.
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///
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/// Note that what "duplicate" means varies by type:
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/// - For most types, this creates a deep, independent copy
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/// - For reference types like `&T`, this creates another reference to the same value
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/// - For smart pointers like [`Arc`] or [`Rc`], this increments the reference count
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/// but still points to the same underlying data
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///
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/// [`Arc`]: ../../std/sync/struct.Arc.html
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/// [`Rc`]: ../../std/rc/struct.Rc.html
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///
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/// # Examples
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///
@@ -157,6 +175,23 @@ pub trait Clone: Sized {
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///
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/// assert_eq!("Hello", hello.clone());
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/// ```
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///
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/// Example with a reference-counted type:
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///
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/// ```
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/// use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex};
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///
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/// let data = Arc::new(Mutex::new(vec![1, 2, 3]));
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/// let data_clone = data.clone(); // Creates another Arc pointing to the same Mutex
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///
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/// {
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/// let mut lock = data.lock().unwrap();
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/// lock.push(4);
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/// }
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///
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/// // Changes are visible through the clone because they share the same underlying data
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/// assert_eq!(*data_clone.lock().unwrap(), vec![1, 2, 3, 4]);
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/// ```
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#[stable(feature = "rust1", since = "1.0.0")]
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#[must_use = "cloning is often expensive and is not expected to have side effects"]
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// Clone::clone is special because the compiler generates MIR to implement it for some types.

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