Arc

Arc<T> allows shared, read-only ownership via Arc::clone:

use std::sync::Arc;
use std::thread;

/// A struct that prints which thread drops it.
#[derive(Debug)]
struct WhereDropped(Vec<i32>);

impl Drop for WhereDropped {
    fn drop(&mut self) {
        println!("Dropped by {:?}", thread::current().id())
    }
}

fn main() {
    let v = Arc::new(WhereDropped(vec![10, 20, 30]));
    let mut handles = Vec::new();
    for i in 0..5 {
        let v = Arc::clone(&v);
        handles.push(thread::spawn(move || {
            // Sleep for 0-500ms.
            std::thread::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_millis(500 - i * 100));
            let thread_id = thread::current().id();
            println!("{thread_id:?}: {v:?}");
        }));
    }

    // Now only the spawned threads will hold clones of `v`.
    drop(v);

    // When the last spawned thread finishes, it will drop `v`'s contents.
    handles.into_iter().for_each(|h| h.join().unwrap());
}
This slide should take about 5 minutes.
  • Arc stands for “Atomic Reference Counted”, a thread safe version of Rc that uses atomic operations.
  • Arc<T> implements Clone whether or not T does. It implements Send and Sync if and only if T implements them both.
  • Arc::clone() has the cost of atomic operations that get executed, but after that the use of the T is free.
  • Beware of reference cycles, Arc does not use a garbage collector to detect them.
    • std::sync::Weak can help.