Crate no_alloc

Embedded friendly pointer types for no_std applications without heap allocators.

Usage

no_alloc can be used to create boxes for dynamically sized types without heap allocation:

#![no_main]
#![no_std]

use core::any::Any;

use cortex_m_rt::entry;
use no_alloc::{boxed_s, BoxS};

#[entry]
fn main() -> ! {
    let boxed: BoxS<dyn Any, [usize; 1]> = boxed_s!(0_isize);
    assert_eq!(boxed.downcast_ref::<isize>(), Some(&0));
    loop {
        // Application logic
    }
}

Compile-time assertions are made to ensure that pointers will always be backed by enough memory and have the correct alignment. The following will fail to compile:

use core::any::Any;
use no_alloc::BoxS;

let _impossible: BoxS<dyn Any, [usize; 0]> = boxed_s!(0_isize);

For more information, consult the documentation for BoxS::new.

Dependencies

no_alloc has no runtime dependencies.

heapless can be optionally brought in to add support for boxes backed by global memory pools by activating the pool feature.

Features

• coerce_unsized

  This feature requires a nightly toolchain

  Implements CoerceUnsized for BoxS, circumventing the requirement for the boxed_s macro:

  use core::any::Any;
  use no_alloc::BoxS;
  
  let boxed: BoxS<dyn Any, [usize; 1]> = BoxS::new(0_isize);

• const_generics

  This feature requires a nightly toolchain

  Implements Memory for arrays of any aribtrary length, rather than a few select lengths.

• pool

  Enables smart pointers allocated from a global memory pool. This will drag in heapless as a dependency.

Safety

Safety is paramount to no_alloc.

It works on top of a lot of unsafe code, but the exposed APIs are 100% safe.

The crate is extensively tested, and these tests are run through Miri as part of the CI for the crate. Commits that fail the Miri stage cannot be merged to master and are forbidden from being released to crates.io.

Macros

boxed_s

Box a value on the stack.

Structs

BoxS

A box that exists entirely on the stack.

Traits

Memory

Defines the types of backing storage for no_alloc smart pointers.