Struct CString

pub struct CString { /* private fields */ }

An owned string that is guaranteed to have exactly one NUL byte, which is at the end.

Used for interoperability with kernel APIs that take C strings.

Invariants

The string is always NUL-terminated and contains no other NUL bytes.

Examples

use kernel::{str::CString, prelude::fmt};

let s = CString::try_from_fmt(fmt!("{}{}{}", "abc", 10, 20))?;
assert_eq!(s.to_bytes_with_nul(), "abc1020\0".as_bytes());

let tmp = "testing";
let s = CString::try_from_fmt(fmt!("{tmp}{}", 123))?;
assert_eq!(s.to_bytes_with_nul(), "testing123\0".as_bytes());

// This fails because it has an embedded `NUL` byte.
let s = CString::try_from_fmt(fmt!("a\0b{}", 123));
assert_eq!(s.is_ok(), false);

Implementations

impl CString

pub fn try_from_fmt(args: Arguments<'_>) -> Result<Self, Error>

Creates an instance of CString from the given formatted arguments.

Methods from Deref<Target = CStr>

pub fn as_ptr(&self) -> *const i8

Returns the inner pointer to this C string.

The returned pointer will be valid for as long as self is, and points to a contiguous region of memory terminated with a 0 byte to represent the end of the string.

The type of the returned pointer is *const c_char, and whether it’s an alias for *const i8 or *const u8 is platform-specific.

WARNING

The returned pointer is read-only; writing to it (including passing it to C code that writes to it) causes undefined behavior.

It is your responsibility to make sure that the underlying memory is not freed too early. For example, the following code will cause undefined behavior when ptr is used inside the unsafe block:

use std::ffi::{CStr, CString};

// 💀 The meaning of this entire program is undefined,
// 💀 and nothing about its behavior is guaranteed,
// 💀 not even that its behavior resembles the code as written,
// 💀 just because it contains a single instance of undefined behavior!

// 🚨 creates a dangling pointer to a temporary `CString`
// 🚨 that is deallocated at the end of the statement
let ptr = CString::new("Hi!".to_uppercase()).unwrap().as_ptr();

// without undefined behavior, you would expect that `ptr` equals:
dbg!(CStr::from_bytes_with_nul(b"HI!\0").unwrap());

// 🙏 Possibly the program behaved as expected so far,
// 🙏 and this just shows `ptr` is now garbage..., but
// 💀 this violates `CStr::from_ptr`'s safety contract
// 💀 leading to a dereference of a dangling pointer,
// 💀 which is immediate undefined behavior.
// 💀 *BOOM*, you're dead, your entire program has no meaning.
dbg!(unsafe { CStr::from_ptr(ptr) });

This happens because, the pointer returned by as_ptr does not carry any lifetime information, and the CString is deallocated immediately after the expression that it is part of has been evaluated. To fix the problem, bind the CString to a local variable:

use std::ffi::{CStr, CString};

let c_str = CString::new("Hi!".to_uppercase()).unwrap();
let ptr = c_str.as_ptr();

assert_eq!(unsafe { CStr::from_ptr(ptr) }, c"HI!");

pub fn count_bytes(&self) -> usize

Returns the length of self. Like C’s strlen, this does not include the nul terminator.

Note: This method is currently implemented as a constant-time cast, but it is planned to alter its definition in the future to perform the length calculation whenever this method is called.

Examples

assert_eq!(c"foo".count_bytes(), 3);
assert_eq!(c"".count_bytes(), 0);

pub fn is_empty(&self) -> bool

Returns true if self.to_bytes() has a length of 0.

Examples

assert!(!c"foo".is_empty());
assert!(c"".is_empty());

pub fn to_bytes(&self) -> &[u8]

Converts this C string to a byte slice.

The returned slice will not contain the trailing nul terminator that this C string has.

Note: This method is currently implemented as a constant-time cast, but it is planned to alter its definition in the future to perform the length calculation whenever this method is called.

Examples

assert_eq!(c"foo".to_bytes(), b"foo");

pub fn to_bytes_with_nul(&self) -> &[u8]

Converts this C string to a byte slice containing the trailing 0 byte.

This function is the equivalent of CStr::to_bytes except that it will retain the trailing nul terminator instead of chopping it off.

Note: This method is currently implemented as a 0-cost cast, but it is planned to alter its definition in the future to perform the length calculation whenever this method is called.

Examples

assert_eq!(c"foo".to_bytes_with_nul(), b"foo\0");

pub fn bytes(&self) -> Bytes<'_>

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (cstr_bytes)

Iterates over the bytes in this C string.

The returned iterator will not contain the trailing nul terminator that this C string has.

Examples

#![feature(cstr_bytes)]

assert!(c"foo".bytes().eq(*b"foo"));

pub fn to_str(&self) -> Result<&str, Utf8Error>

Yields a &str slice if the CStr contains valid UTF-8.

If the contents of the CStr are valid UTF-8 data, this function will return the corresponding &str slice. Otherwise, it will return an error with details of where UTF-8 validation failed.

Examples

assert_eq!(c"foo".to_str(), Ok("foo"));

pub fn display(&self) -> impl Display

🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (cstr_display)

Returns an object that implements Display for safely printing a CStr that may contain non-Unicode data.

Behaves as if self were first lossily converted to a str, with invalid UTF-8 presented as the Unicode replacement character: �.

Examples

#![feature(cstr_display)]

let cstr = c"Hello, world!";
println!("{}", cstr.display());

Trait Implementations

impl Debug for CString

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result

Formats the value using the given formatter.

impl Deref for CString

type Target = CStr

The resulting type after dereferencing.

fn deref(&self) -> &Self::Target

Dereferences the value.

impl DerefMut for CString

fn deref_mut(&mut self) -> &mut Self::Target

Mutably dereferences the value.

impl Property for CString

fn read_from_fwnode_property(fwnode: &FwNode, name: &CStr) -> Result<Self>

Used to make FwNode::property_read generic.

impl<'a> TryFrom<&'a CStr> for CString

type Error = AllocError

The type returned in the event of a conversion error.

fn try_from(cstr: &'a CStr) -> Result<CString, AllocError>

Performs the conversion.