Message-ID: <20251001-unique-ref-v12-1-fa5c31f0c0c4@pm.me>
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:03:46 +0000
From: Oliver Mangold <oliver.mangold@...me>
To: Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@...nel.org>, Alex Gaynor <alex.gaynor@...il.com>, Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>, Gary Guo <gary@...yguo.net>, Björn Roy Baron <bjorn3_gh@...tonmail.com>, Andreas Hindborg <a.hindborg@...nel.org>, Alice Ryhl <aliceryhl@...gle.com>, Trevor Gross <tmgross@...ch.edu>, Benno Lossin <lossin@...nel.org>, Danilo Krummrich <dakr@...nel.org>, Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>, Dave Ertman <david.m.ertman@...el.com>, Ira Weiny <ira.weiny@...el.com>, Leon Romanovsky <leon@...nel.org>, "Rafael J. Wysocki" <rafael@...nel.org>, Maarten Lankhorst <maarten.lankhorst@...ux.intel.com>, Maxime Ripard <mripard@...nel.org>, Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@...e.de>, David Airlie <airlied@...il.com>, Simona Vetter <simona@...ll.ch>, Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>, Christian Brauner <brauner@...nel.org>, Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>, Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>, "Liam R. Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@...cle.com>, Viresh Kumar
	<vireshk@...nel.org>, Nishanth Menon <nm@...com>, Stephen Boyd <sboyd@...nel.org>, Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@...gle.com>, Krzysztof Wilczyński <kwilczynski@...nel.org>, Asahi Lina <lina+kernel@...hilina.net>
Cc: rust-for-linux@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-block@...r.kernel.org, dri-devel@...ts.freedesktop.org, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-pm@...r.kernel.org, linux-pci@...r.kernel.org, Oliver Mangold <oliver.mangold@...me>
Subject: [PATCH v12 1/4] rust: types: Add Ownable/Owned types

From: Asahi Lina <lina+kernel@...hilina.net>

By analogy to `AlwaysRefCounted` and `ARef`, an `Ownable` type is a
(typically C FFI) type that *may* be owned by Rust, but need not be. Unlike
`AlwaysRefCounted`, this mechanism expects the reference to be unique
within Rust, and does not allow cloning.

Conceptually, this is similar to a `KBox<T>`, except that it delegates
resource management to the `T` instead of using a generic allocator.

[ om:
  - Split code into separate file and `pub use` it from types.rs.
  - Make from_raw() and into_raw() public.
  - Remove OwnableMut, and make DerefMut dependent on Unpin instead.
  - Usage example/doctest for Ownable/Owned.
  - Fixes to documentation and commit message.
]

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250202-rust-page-v1-1-e3170d7fe55e@asahilina.net/
Signed-off-by: Asahi Lina <lina+kernel@...hilina.net>
Co-developed-by: Oliver Mangold <oliver.mangold@...me>
Signed-off-by: Oliver Mangold <oliver.mangold@...me>
Reviewed-by: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>
---
 rust/kernel/lib.rs       |   1 +
 rust/kernel/owned.rs     | 195 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 rust/kernel/sync/aref.rs |   5 ++
 rust/kernel/types.rs     |   2 +
 4 files changed, 203 insertions(+)

diff --git a/rust/kernel/lib.rs b/rust/kernel/lib.rs
index ed53169e795c0badf548025a57f946fa18bc73e3..3aea741f668b7d7a1a16e8e4537e5edba997259c 100644
--- a/rust/kernel/lib.rs
+++ b/rust/kernel/lib.rs
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@
 pub mod init;
 pub mod io;
 pub mod ioctl;
+pub mod owned;
 pub mod jump_label;
 #[cfg(CONFIG_KUNIT)]
 pub mod kunit;
diff --git a/rust/kernel/owned.rs b/rust/kernel/owned.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..38f70a20fb965305d14836498a0e7ad73166c6c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rust/kernel/owned.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,195 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+//! Unique reference types for objects with custom destructors. They should be used for C-allocated
+//! objects which by API-contract are owned by Rust, but need to be freed through the C API.
+
+use core::{
+    marker::PhantomData,
+    mem::ManuallyDrop,
+    ops::{Deref, DerefMut},
+    pin::Pin,
+    ptr::NonNull,
+};
+
+/// Type allocated and destroyed on the C side, but owned by Rust.
+///
+/// Implementing this trait allows types to be wrapped in an [`Owned<Self>`]. Such types can
+/// define their own custom destructor function to be called when the [`Owned<Self>`] is
+/// dropped.
+///
+/// Note: The underlying object is not required to provide internal reference counting, because it
+/// represents a unique, owned reference. If reference counting (on the Rust side) is required,
+/// [`AlwaysRefCounted`](crate::types::AlwaysRefCounted) should be implemented.
+///
+/// # Safety
+///
+/// Implementers must ensure that the [`release()`](Self::release) function frees the underlying
+/// object in the correct way for a valid, owned object of this type.
+///
+/// # Examples
+///
+/// A minimal example implementation of [`Ownable`] and its usage with [`Owned`] looks like this:
+///
+/// ```
+/// # #![expect(clippy::disallowed_names)]
+/// use core::cell::Cell;
+/// use core::ptr::NonNull;
+/// use kernel::sync::global_lock;
+/// use kernel::alloc::{flags, kbox::KBox, AllocError};
+/// use kernel::types::{Owned, Ownable};
+///
+/// // Let's count the allocations to see if freeing works.
+/// kernel::sync::global_lock! {
+///     // SAFETY: we call `init()` right below, before doing anything else.
+///     unsafe(uninit) static FOO_ALLOC_COUNT: Mutex<usize> = 0;
+/// }
+/// // SAFETY: We call `init()` only once, here.
+/// unsafe { FOO_ALLOC_COUNT.init() };
+///
+/// struct Foo {
+/// }
+///
+/// impl Foo {
+///     fn new() -> Result<Owned<Self>, AllocError> {
+///         // We are just using a `KBox` here to handle the actual allocation, as our `Foo` is
+///         // not actually a C-allocated object.
+///         let result = KBox::new(
+///             Foo {},
+///             flags::GFP_KERNEL,
+///         )?;
+///         let result = NonNull::new(KBox::into_raw(result))
+///             .expect("Raw pointer to newly allocation KBox is null, this should never happen.");
+///         // Count new allocation
+///         *FOO_ALLOC_COUNT.lock() += 1;
+///         // SAFETY: We just allocated the `Self`, thus it is valid and there cannot be any other
+///         // Rust references. Calling `into_raw()` makes us responsible for ownership and we won't
+///         // use the raw pointer anymore. Thus we can transfer ownership to the `Owned`.
+///         Ok(unsafe { Owned::from_raw(result) })
+///     }
+/// }
+///
+/// // SAFETY: What out `release()` function does is safe of any valid `Self`.
+/// unsafe impl Ownable for Foo {
+///     unsafe fn release(this: NonNull<Self>) {
+///         // The `Foo` will be dropped when `KBox` goes out of scope.
+///         // SAFETY: The [`KBox<Self>`] is still alive. We can pass ownership to the [`KBox`], as
+///         // by requirement on calling this function, the `Self` will no longer be used by the
+///         // caller.
+///         unsafe { KBox::from_raw(this.as_ptr()) };
+///         // Count released allocation
+///         *FOO_ALLOC_COUNT.lock() -= 1;
+///     }
+/// }
+///
+/// {
+///    let foo = Foo::new().expect("Failed to allocate a Foo. This shouldn't happen");
+///    assert!(*FOO_ALLOC_COUNT.lock() == 1);
+/// }
+/// // `foo` is out of scope now, so we expect no live allocations.
+/// assert!(*FOO_ALLOC_COUNT.lock() == 0);
+/// ```
+pub unsafe trait Ownable {
+    /// Releases the object.
+    ///
+    /// # Safety
+    ///
+    /// Callers must ensure that:
+    /// - `this` points to a valid `Self`.
+    /// - `*this` is no longer referenced after this call.
+    unsafe fn release(this: NonNull<Self>);
+}
+
+/// An owned reference to an [`Ownable`] object.
+///
+/// The [`Ownable`] is automatically freed or released when an instance of [`Owned`] is
+/// dropped.
+///
+/// # Invariants
+///
+/// - The [`Owned<T>`] has exclusive access to the instance of `T`.
+/// - The instance of `T` will stay alive at least as long as the [`Owned<T>`] is alive.
+pub struct Owned<T: Ownable> {
+    ptr: NonNull<T>,
+    _p: PhantomData<T>,
+}
+
+// SAFETY: It is safe to send an [`Owned<T>`] to another thread when the underlying `T` is [`Send`],
+// because of the ownership invariant. Sending an [`Owned<T>`] is equivalent to sending the `T`.
+unsafe impl<T: Ownable + Send> Send for Owned<T> {}
+
+// SAFETY: It is safe to send [`&Owned<T>`] to another thread when the underlying `T` is [`Sync`],
+// because of the ownership invariant. Sending an [`&Owned<T>`] is equivalent to sending the `&T`.
+unsafe impl<T: Ownable + Sync> Sync for Owned<T> {}
+
+impl<T: Ownable> Owned<T> {
+    /// Creates a new instance of [`Owned`].
+    ///
+    /// It takes over ownership of the underlying object.
+    ///
+    /// # Safety
+    ///
+    /// Callers must ensure that:
+    /// - `ptr` points to a valid instance of `T`.
+    /// - Ownership of the underlying `T` can be transferred to the `Self<T>` (i.e. operations
+    ///   which require ownership will be safe).
+    /// - No other Rust references to the underlying object exist. This implies that the underlying
+    ///   object is not accessed through `ptr` anymore after the function call (at least until the
+    ///   the `Self<T>` is dropped.
+    /// - The C code follows the usual shared reference requirements. That is, the kernel will never
+    ///   mutate or free the underlying object (excluding interior mutability that follows the usual
+    ///   rules) while Rust owns it.
+    /// - In case `T` implements [`Unpin`] the previous requirement is extended from shared to
+    ///   mutable reference requirements. That is, the kernel will not mutate or free the underlying
+    ///   object and is okay with it being modified by Rust code.
+    pub unsafe fn from_raw(ptr: NonNull<T>) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            ptr,
+            _p: PhantomData,
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Consumes the [`Owned`], returning a raw pointer.
+    ///
+    /// This function does not actually relinquish ownership of the object. After calling this
+    /// function, the caller is responsible for ownership previously managed
+    /// by the [`Owned`].
+    pub fn into_raw(me: Self) -> NonNull<T> {
+        ManuallyDrop::new(me).ptr
+    }
+
+    /// Get a pinned mutable reference to the data owned by this `Owned<T>`.
+    pub fn get_pin_mut(&mut self) -> Pin<&mut T> {
+        // SAFETY: The type invariants guarantee that the object is valid, and that we can safely
+        // return a mutable reference to it.
+        let unpinned = unsafe { self.ptr.as_mut() };
+
+        // SAFETY: We never hand out unpinned mutable references to the data in
+        // `Self`, unless the contained type is `Unpin`.
+        unsafe { Pin::new_unchecked(unpinned) }
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T: Ownable> Deref for Owned<T> {
+    type Target = T;
+
+    fn deref(&self) -> &Self::Target {
+        // SAFETY: The type invariants guarantee that the object is valid.
+        unsafe { self.ptr.as_ref() }
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T: Ownable + Unpin> DerefMut for Owned<T> {
+    fn deref_mut(&mut self) -> &mut Self::Target {
+        // SAFETY: The type invariants guarantee that the object is valid, and that we can safely
+        // return a mutable reference to it.
+        unsafe { self.ptr.as_mut() }
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T: Ownable> Drop for Owned<T> {
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        // SAFETY: The type invariants guarantee that the `Owned` owns the object we're about to
+        // release.
+        unsafe { T::release(self.ptr) };
+    }
+}
diff --git a/rust/kernel/sync/aref.rs b/rust/kernel/sync/aref.rs
index dbd77bb68617cab786fe4a1168d697e30a6de299..f8085cfe50db0798c3cdadab35ac6e2826c315f9 100644
--- a/rust/kernel/sync/aref.rs
+++ b/rust/kernel/sync/aref.rs
@@ -14,6 +14,11 @@
 /// Rust code, the recommendation is to use [`Arc`](crate::sync::Arc) to create reference-counted
 /// instances of a type.
 ///
+/// Note: Implementing this trait allows types to be wrapped in an [`ARef<Self>`]. It requires an
+/// internal reference count and provides only shared references. If unique references are required
+/// [`Ownable`](crate::types::Ownable) should be implemented which allows types to be wrapped in an
+/// [`Owned<Self>`](crate::types::Owned).
+///
 /// # Safety
 ///
 /// Implementers must ensure that increments to the reference count keep the object alive in memory
diff --git a/rust/kernel/types.rs b/rust/kernel/types.rs
index dc0a02f5c3cfc532d1fa5f209b40dd79cbe0fb37..7bc07c38cd6cb6abb59384e20a793f28633a9eac 100644
--- a/rust/kernel/types.rs
+++ b/rust/kernel/types.rs
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 };
 use pin_init::{PinInit, Wrapper, Zeroable};
 
+pub use crate::owned::{Ownable, Owned};
+
 pub use crate::sync::aref::{ARef, AlwaysRefCounted};
 
 /// Used to transfer ownership to and from foreign (non-Rust) languages.

-- 
2.51.0

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