Crate sm[−][src]

💋 SM – a static State Machine library

SM allows you to define a collection of states and events using Rust's type system. You can query the current state, and execute transitions between states. State machine usage is validated at compile-time. Undefined behavior is not an option.

The implementation ensures a zero-sized abstraction that uses Rust's type-system and ownership model to guarantee valid transitions between states using events, and makes sure previous states are no longer usable after transitioning away to another state. Rust validates correct usage of the state machine at compile-time, no runtime checking occurs when using the library.

The library exposes the sm! macro, which allows you to declaratively build the state machine.

Examples

Quick Example

#[macro_use] extern crate sm;

sm! {
    Lock { Locked, Unlocked, Broken }

    TurnKey {
        Locked => Unlocked
        Unlocked => Locked
    }

    Break {
        Locked => Broken
        Unlocked => Broken
    }
}

fn main() {
    use Lock::*;
    let sm = Machine::new(Locked);
    let sm = sm.event(TurnKey);

    assert_eq!(sm.state(), Unlocked);
}

Descriptive Example

The below example explains step-by-step how to create a new state machine using the provided macro, and then how to use the created machine in your code by querying states, and transitioning between states by triggering events.

Declaring a new State Machine

First, we import the macro from the crate:

#[macro_use] extern crate sm;

Next, we initiate the macro declaration:

sm! {

Then, provide a name for the machine, and declare its states:

    Lock { Locked, Unlocked, Broken }

Finally, we declare one or more events and the associated transitions:

    TurnKey {
        Locked => Unlocked
        Unlocked => Locked
    }

    Break {
        Locked => Broken
        Unlocked => Broken
    }
}

And we're done. We've defined our state machine structure, and the valid transitions, and can now use this state machine in our code.

Using your State Machine

You can initialise the machine as follows:

let sm = Lock::Machine::new(Lock::Locked);

We can make this a bit less verbose by bringing our machine into scope:

use Lock::*;
let sm = Machine::new(Locked);

We've initialised our machine in the Locked state. You can get the current state of the machine by sending the state() method to the machine:

let state = sm.state();
assert_eq!(state, Locked);

You can use the above method to model your own domain logic based on the current state of the machine using any conditional expression.

Finally, as per our declaration, we can transition this machine to the Unlocked state by triggering the TurnKey event:

let sm = sm.event(TurnKey);
assert_eq!(sm.state(), Unlocked);

A word about Type-Safety and Ownership

It's important to realise that we've consumed the original machine in the above example, and got a newly initialised machine back in the Unlocked state.

This allows us to safely use the machine without having to worry about multiple readers using the machine in different states.

All these checks are applied on compile-time, so the following example would fail to compile:

ⓘThis example deliberately fails to compile
let sm2 = sm.event(TurnKey);
assert_eq!(sm.state(), Locked);

This fails with the following compilation error:

error[E0382]: use of moved value: `sm`
  --> src/lib.rs:140:12
   |
14 | let sm2 = sm.event(TurnKey);
   |           -- value moved here
15 | assert_eq!(sm.state(), Locked);
   |            ^^ value used here after move
   |
   = note: move occurs because `sm` has type `Lock::Machine<Lock::Locked>`, which does not implement the `Copy` trait

Similarly, we cannot execute undefined transitions, these are also caught by the compiler:

ⓘThis example deliberately fails to compile
let sm = sm.event(TurnKey);
assert_eq!(sm.state(), Broken);

This fails with the following compilation error:

error[E0599]: no method named `event` found for type `Lock::Machine<Lock::Broken>` in the current scope
  --> src/lib.rs:246:13
   |
3  | / sm! {
4  | |    Lock { Locked, Unlocked, Broken }
5  | |    TurnKey {
6  | |        Locked => Unlocked
...  |
13 | |    }
14 | | }
   | |_- method `event` not found for this
...
19 |   let sm = sm.event(TurnKey);
   |               ^^^^^
   |
   = help: items from traits can only be used if the trait is implemented and in scope
   = note: the following trait defines an item `event`, perhaps you need to implement it:
           candidate #1: `Lock::Transition`
   = note: this error originates in a macro outside of the current crate (in Nightly builds, run with -Z external-macro-backtrace for more info)

The error message is not great (and can potentially be improved in the future), but any error telling you event is not implemented, or the passed in event type is invalid is an indication that you are trying to execute an illegal state transition.

The End 💋

And that's it! There's nothing else to it, except a declarative – and easy to read – state machine construction macro, and a type-safe and ownership-focused way of dealing with states and transitions, without any runtime overhead.

Go forth and transition!

Macros

sm

Generate the declaratively described state machine diagram.