MutGuard

this library allows you to call a function after some data has been mutably borrowed.

Note: that function will be called from a Drop handler

Use cases

Invariant checks

It can be used to enforce invariant: every time a &mut is obtained, be it from the element's method definition, or from external code accessing public members directly, the invariant check will run and verify the data is correct.

extern crate mut_guard;
use mut_guard::*;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct LessThan20(pub u8);

impl Guard for LessThan20 {
  fn finish(&mut self) {
    assert!(self.0 <= 20, "invariant failed, internal value is too large: {}", self.0);
  }
}

fn main() {
  let mut val = MutGuard::new(LessThan20(0));

  //"val: 0"
  println!("val: {:?}", *val);

  // this would fail because MutGuard does not implement DerefMut directly
  //val.0 = 10;

  // use the guard() method to get a `&mut LessThan20`
  val.guard().0 = 10;

  //"val: 10"
  println!("val: {:?}", *val);

  // once the value returned by guard() is dropped, the invariant will be checked
  // This code will panic with the following message:
  // 'invariant failed, internal value is too large: 30'
  val.guard().0 = 30;
}

Logging

Since the guard will be called every time there's a mutable access, we can log the changes there:

# extern crate mut_guard;
# use mut_guard::*;
#
# fn main() {
  let v = Vec::new();

  // the wrap methods allows us to Specifiesy a closure instead of manually
  // implementing Guard
  let mut iv = MutGuard::wrap(v, |ref mut vec| {
    println!("vector content is now {:?}", vec);
  });

  iv.guard().push(1);
  // prints "vector content is now [1]"

  iv.guard().push(2);
  // prints "vector content is now [1, 2]"

  iv.guard().push(3);
  // prints "vector content is now [1, 2, 3]"
# }

Serialization

The guard function could be used to store the element to a file after every change

#[macro_use]
extern crate serde_derive;
extern crate mut_guard;
extern crate serde;
extern crate serde_json;

use mut_guard::*;
use std::fs::File;

#[derive(Serialize, Debug)]
struct Data {
    pub a: u32,
    pub s: String,
    pub v: Vec<u32>,
}

impl Guard for Data {
    fn finish(&mut self) {
        File::create("data.json")
            .map_err(|e| {
                println!("could not create data file");
            })
            .and_then(|mut f| {
                serde_json::to_writer(f, self).map_err(|e| {
                    println!("could not serialize data: {:?}", e);
                })
            });
    }
}

fn main() {
    let mut data = MutGuard::new(Data {
        a: 0,
        s: "hello".to_string(),
        v: vec![1, 2],
    });

    data.guard().s = "Hello world".to_string();
    // data.json was created and now contains:
    // {"a":0,"s":"Hello world","v":[1,2]}
}