Rust Core

Rust Core Standards

Ownership & Borrowing

1. Ownership Rules:

   • Each value has exactly one owner
   • Value dropped when owner goes out of scope
   • Do: Move or clone explicitly when needed
   • Don't: Fight the borrow checker with unsafe

2. Borrowing:

   • Immutable: &T - multiple allowed
   • Mutable: &mut T - only one, no immutable refs
   • Rule: References must not outlive data

Error Handling

// Use Result for recoverable errors
fn parse_config(path: &str) -> Result<Config, ConfigError> {
    let content = std::fs::read_to_string(path)?;
    toml::from_str(&content).map_err(ConfigError::Parse)
}

// Use Option for optional values
fn find_user(id: u64) -> Option<User> { /* ... */ }

// Custom error types
#[derive(Debug, thiserror::Error)]
enum AppError {
    #[error("database error: {0}")]
    Database(#[from] sqlx::Error),
    #[error("not found: {0}")]
    NotFound(String),
}

Patterns:

• ? operator for propagation
• thiserror for library errors
• anyhow for application errors
• Never: unwrap() in production code (use expect with context)

Async/Await

• Runtime: Tokio for production
• Rule: Async functions return Future, need executor

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    let result = fetch_data().await;
}

async fn fetch_data() -> Result<Data, Error> {
    let response = reqwest::get("https://api.example.com").await?;
    response.json().await.map_err(Into::into)
}

Concurrency Patterns:

• tokio::spawn for background tasks
• tokio::select! for racing futures
• tokio::sync::Mutex for shared async state
• Warning: std::sync::Mutex blocks; use tokio::sync in async

Traits & Generics

// Define trait bounds
fn process<T: Serialize + Debug>(item: T) -> String { /* ... */ }

// Impl blocks
impl<T: Clone> Container<T> {
    fn duplicate(&self) -> Self { /* ... */ }
}

// Associated types for clarity
trait Iterator {
    type Item;
    fn next(&mut self) -> Option<Self::Item>;
}

Best Practices:

• Prefer impl Trait for return types
• Use where clauses for complex bounds
• #[derive] for common traits: Debug, Clone, PartialEq

Project Structure

my-project/
├── Cargo.toml
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs          # Entry point
│   ├── lib.rs           # Library root (optional)
│   ├── config.rs        # Configuration
│   ├── error.rs         # Error types
│   ├── handlers/        # Request handlers
│   │   └── mod.rs
│   └── models/          # Data structures
│       └── mod.rs
└── tests/
    └── integration.rs   # Integration tests

Conventions:

• mod.rs for module roots
• pub only what's needed
• Re-export with pub use at module root

Testing

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use super::*;

    #[test]
    fn test_parse() {
        let result = parse("valid");
        assert_eq!(result, Ok(Expected));
    }

    #[tokio::test]
    async fn test_async_fn() {
        let data = fetch().await;
        assert!(data.is_ok());
    }
}

• Unit tests in same file with #[cfg(test)]
• Integration tests in tests/ directory
• Use mockall for mocking traits

Security

1. Input Validation: Validate all external input before processing
2. SQL Injection: Use parameterized queries (sqlx, diesel)
3. Dependencies: Run cargo audit regularly
4. Unsafe: Minimize unsafe blocks, document invariants
5. Secrets: Use secrecy crate for sensitive data in memory

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