Crate thread_lock

This crate introduces the niche ThreadLock struct. This struct stores arbitrary data, but only allows access to it from a specific thread at runtime; in exchange, the ThreadLock itself is Send and Sync.

This has very limited usage, but occasionally it may be useful for cases where some parts of a struct must be multithreaded, while other parts cannot be. Often, these should be split into distinct structs (one of which is Sync while the other is not), but this may occasionally be a simpler option.

A (contrived) example similar to an actual usage I had:

 
struct A; // A: Sync
 
struct B;
 
pub struct AB {
   
  a: A,
  b: ThreadLock<Rc<B>>
   
}
 
impl AB {
   
  pub fn new() -> Self {
    // note that Rc is neither Send nor Sync
    let (a, b): (A, Rc<B>) = construct_ab();
    Self { a, b: ThreadLock::new(b) }
  }
   
  pub fn foo(&self) { // any thread is allowed to call AB::foo
    do_something_with_a(&self.a);
  }
   
  pub fn foo_and_bar(&self) {
    let b = self.b.try_get().expect("foo_and_bar is only allowed on the same thread that AB was constructed");
    do_something_with_a(&self.a);
    do_something_with_b(b);
  }
   
}

The notable features of this example:

1. I want to be able to do some of the things AB can do on all threads, so I want AB to be Sync.
2. Some of the things AB can do (namely, foo_and_bar) require AB to have resources (namely, B) that cannot be shared among threads, as well as the multi-threaded resources.
3. A and B can only be constructed together; this is less important, but it can make it harder or less ergonomic to split AB into distinct structs.

Structs

ThreadLock

A ThreadLock<T> contains a value of type T, but only allows access to it from one thread, checked at runtime; in exchange, every ThreadLock<T> is both Send and Sync

TryIntoWrongThreadError

An error returned by ThreadLock::try_into_inner.

WrongThreadError

An error returned by ThreadLock::try_get and ThreadLock::try_get_mut.