illumos-nvpair

Idiomatic Rust wrapper around illumos libnvpair. Converts raw nvlist_t pointers into pure Rust types - no raw pointers or FFI in the public API.

API

• NvList - an ordered list of name-value pairs, stored as Vec<(String, NvValue)>. Provides a lookup(name) method for retrieving values by key.

• NvValue - an enum covering every nvpair data type: scalars (Boolean, Byte, Int8–UInt64, Double, String, Hrtime), arrays of each, nested NvList, and an Unknown fallback for unrecognized type codes.

• nvlist_to_rust(nvl: *mut nvlist_t) -> NvList - the single unsafe entry point. It borrows the C nvlist pointer, walks every pair via nvlist_next_nvpair, deep-copies all values into owned Rust types, and returns the result. The caller retains ownership of the original nvlist_t and is responsible for freeing it.

Design: borrow and copy

The wrapper deep-copies rather than wrapping the nvlist_t pointer with a Rust lifetime or ownership model. This is deliberate: consumers like fmd-adm receive nvlists from C callbacks where the library owns the memory and the pointer is only valid for the duration of the callback. Deep-copying into owned Rust values avoids lifetime entanglement with C and lets the resulting NvList be freely moved, cloned, and stored.