Upgrades for noncopyable types

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Upgrades for noncopyable types 관련

HACKING WITH SWIFT

What's new in Swift?

Upgrades for noncopyable types | Changes in Swift 6.0

Upgrades for noncopyable types

Available from Swift 6.0

Noncopyable types were introduced in Swift 5.9, but are getting several upgrades in Swift 6.

As a reminder, noncopyable types allow us to create types that have unique ownership, which we can pass around using borrowing or consuming as needed.

One example of noncopyable types I previously used were the secret messages used in the Mission Impossible movies – they famously self-destruct after being read, which we can model with a noncopyable type that is consumed (i.e. destroyed) upon reading:

struct Message: ~Copyable {
    var agent: String
    private var message: String

    init(agent: String, message: String) {
        self.agent = agent
        self.message = message
    }

    consuming func read() {
        print("\(agent): \(message)")
    }
}

func createMessage() {
    let message = Message(agent: "Ethan Hunt", message: "You need to abseil down a skyscraper for some reason.")
    message.read()
}

createMessage()

In that code, the compiler enforces that message.read() can only ever be called once, because it consumes the object.

The first major improvement is SE-0427 (apple/swift-evolution), which introduces a batch of improvements at once. The biggest of those is that every struct, class, enum, generic type parameter, and protocol in Swift 6 automatically conforms to a new Copyable protocol unless you explicitly opt out using ~Copyable.

This impacts on the other changes introduced with this proposal. For example, noncopyable types can now be used with generics, allowing things like optional noncopyable instances because Swift's Optional is implemented as a generic enum. However, because generic type parameters automatically conform to Copyable we must explicitly opt out using ~Copyable.

Similarly, this change means noncopyable types can now conform to protocols, but only when those protocols are also marked ~Copyable because otherwise they get automatically opted into Copyable as mentioned above. (In case you were curious, Copyable types can conform to noncopyable protocols just fine.)

SE-0429 (apple/swift-evolution) improves things further by adding partial consumption of noncopyable values.

Previously it could be a problem when one noncopyable type incorporated another. For example, even fairly trivial code like the below was a problem before SE-0429 (apple/swift-evolution):

struct Package: ~Copyable {
    var from: String = "IMF"
    var message: Message

    consuming func read() {
        message.read()
    }
}

That code is now valid Swift, as long as the types in question don't have deinitializers.

A third major noncopyable improvement is SE-0432 (apple/swift-evolution), which allows us to borrow noncopyable types while switching over them. Previously it was impossible to do pattern matching with where clauses that depended on noncopyable values, whereas thanks to SE-0432 this is now possible in Swift 6.

Continuing our Mission Impossible example, we could say that one set of orders might be signed or anonymous, like this:

enum ImpossibleOrder: ~Copyable {
    case signed(Package)
    case anonymous(Message)
}

Because that enum has associated values that are noncopyable, it must itself be noncopyable. However, the associated values being noncopyable also means that pattern matching with where was tricky – if you wanted to perform one set of actions for one Message type, and a different set for another Message type, you were out of luck.

With SE-0432 (apple/swift-evolution) this is now resolved, meaning code like the below is now allowed:

func issueOrders() {
    let message = Message(agent: "Ethan Hunt", message: "You need to abseil down a skyscraper for some reason.")
    let order = ImpossibleOrder.anonymous(message)

    switch consume order {
    case .signed(let package):
        package.read()
    case .anonymous(let message) where message.agent == "Ethan Hunt":
        print("Play dramatic music")
        message.read()
    case .anonymous(let message):
        message.read()
    }
}