pub struct EngineState {
    pub scope: ScopeFrame,
    pub ctrlc: Option<Arc<AtomicBool>>,
    pub env_vars: EnvVars,
    pub previous_env_vars: HashMap<String, Value>,
    pub config: Config,
    /* private fields */
}
Expand description

The core global engine state. This includes all global definitions as well as any global state that will persist for the whole session.

Declarations, variables, blocks, and other forms of data are held in the global state and referenced elsewhere using their IDs. These IDs are simply their index into the global state. This allows us to more easily handle creating blocks, binding variables and callsites, and more, because each of these will refer to the corresponding IDs rather than their definitions directly. At runtime, this means less copying and smaller structures.

Note that the runtime stack is not part of this global state. Runtime stacks are handled differently, but they also rely on using IDs rather than full definitions.

A note on implementation:

Much of the global definitions are built on the Bodil’s ‘im’ crate. This gives us a way of working with lists of definitions in a way that is very cheap to access, while also allowing us to update them at key points in time (often, the transition between parsing and evaluation).

Over the last two years we tried a few different approaches to global state like this. I’ll list them here for posterity, so we can more easily know how we got here:

  • Rc - Rc is cheap, but not thread-safe. The moment we wanted to work with external processes, we needed a way send to stdin/stdout. In Rust, the current practice is to spawn a thread to handle both. These threads would need access to the global state, as they’ll need to process data as it streams out of the data pipeline. Because Rc isn’t thread-safe, this breaks.

  • Arc - Arc is the thread-safe version of the above. Often Arc is used in combination with a Mutex or RwLock, but you can use Arc by itself. We did this a few places in the original Nushell. This can work but because of Arc’s nature of not allowing mutation if there’s a second copy of the Arc around, this ultimately becomes limiting.

  • Arc + Mutex/RwLock - the standard practice for thread-safe containers. Unfortunately, this would have meant we would incur a lock penalty every time we needed to access any declaration or block. As we would be reading far more often than writing, it made sense to explore solutions that favor large amounts of reads.

  • im - the im crate was ultimately chosen because it has some very nice properties: it gives the ability to cheaply clone these structures, which is nice as EngineState may need to be cloned a fair bit to follow ownership rules for closures and iterators. It also is cheap to access. Favoring reads here fits more closely to what we need with Nushell. And, of course, it’s still thread-safe, so we get the same benefits as above.

Fields

scope: ScopeFramectrlc: Option<Arc<AtomicBool>>env_vars: EnvVarsprevious_env_vars: HashMap<String, Value>config: Config

Implementations

Merges a StateDelta onto the current state. These deltas come from a system, like the parser, that creates a new set of definitions and visible symbols in the current scope. We make this transactional as there are times when we want to run the parser and immediately throw away the results (namely: syntax highlighting and completions).

When we want to preserve what the parser has created, we can take its output (the StateDelta) and use this function to merge it into the global state.

Translate overlay IDs from other to IDs in self

Get all IDs of all commands within scope, sorted by the commads’ names

Get signatures of all commands within scope.

Get signatures of all commands within scope.

In addition to signatures, it returns whether each command is: a) a plugin b) custom

Trait Implementations

Returns a copy of the value. Read more

Performs copy-assignment from source. Read more

Returns the “default value” for a type. Read more

Auto Trait Implementations

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Mutably borrows from an owned value. Read more

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Calls U::from(self).

That is, this conversion is whatever the implementation of From<T> for U chooses to do.

Set the foreground color generically Read more

Set the background color generically. Read more

Change the foreground color to black

Change the background color to black

Change the foreground color to red

Change the background color to red

Change the foreground color to green

Change the background color to green

Change the foreground color to yellow

Change the background color to yellow

Change the foreground color to blue

Change the background color to blue

Change the foreground color to magenta

Change the background color to magenta

Change the foreground color to purple

Change the background color to purple

Change the foreground color to cyan

Change the background color to cyan

Change the foreground color to white

Change the background color to white

Change the foreground color to the terminal default

Change the background color to the terminal default

Change the foreground color to bright black

Change the background color to bright black

Change the foreground color to bright red

Change the background color to bright red

Change the foreground color to bright green

Change the background color to bright green

Change the foreground color to bright yellow

Change the background color to bright yellow

Change the foreground color to bright blue

Change the background color to bright blue

Change the foreground color to bright magenta

Change the background color to bright magenta

Change the foreground color to bright purple

Change the background color to bright purple

Change the foreground color to bright cyan

Change the background color to bright cyan

Change the foreground color to bright white

Change the background color to bright white

Make the text bold

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Make the text italicized

Make the text italicized

Make the text blink

Make the text blink (but fast!)

Swap the foreground and background colors

Hide the text

Cross out the text

Set the foreground color at runtime. Only use if you do not know which color will be used at compile-time. If the color is constant, use either OwoColorize::fg or a color-specific method, such as OwoColorize::green, Read more

Set the background color at runtime. Only use if you do not know what color to use at compile-time. If the color is constant, use either OwoColorize::bg or a color-specific method, such as OwoColorize::on_yellow, Read more

Set the foreground color to a specific RGB value.

Set the background color to a specific RGB value.

Sets the foreground color to an RGB value.

Sets the background color to an RGB value.

Apply a runtime-determined style

The resulting type after obtaining ownership.

Creates owned data from borrowed data, usually by cloning. Read more

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The type returned in the event of a conversion error.

Performs the conversion.