Future is not `Send` as this value is used across an await (but I drop the value before the `await`)

help
#1

I have the following semi-minimal reproduction:

async fn process(url: Url) -> Result<()> {
    let bytes = fetch(url.clone()).await?;
    let page = String::from_utf8(bytes.clone())?;
    let page = kuchiki::parse_html().one(page);

    //let links = get_links(&page, url);
    drop(page);
    let links: Vec<Url> = vec![];
    for url in &links {
        add_url(&url).await.unwrap();
    }
    Ok(())
}

This gives the following error. What is confusing about this error is that I explicitly drop page before the add_url line, so I'm not sure what the issue is.

error: future cannot be sent between threads safely
   --> src/main.rs:321:22
    |
321 |         let handle = tokio::spawn(async move {
    |                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^ future created by async block is not `Send`
    | 
   ::: /home/vedantroy/.cargo/registry/src/github.com-1ecc6299db9ec823/tokio-1.4.0/src/task/spawn.rs:129:21
    |
129 |         T: Future + Send + 'static,
    |                     ---- required by this bound in `tokio::spawn`
    |
    = help: within `impl futures::Future`, the trait `std::marker::Send` is not implemented for `Rc<Node>`
note: future is not `Send` as this value is used across an await
   --> src/main.rs:264:9
    |
256 |     let page = kuchiki::parse_html().one(page);
    |         ---- has type `NodeRef` which is not `Send`
...
264 |         add_url(&url).await.unwrap();
    |         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ await occurs here, with `page` maybe used later
...
267 | }
    | - `page` is later dropped here
#2

Ok, I fixed the error by doing this. But I don't see why this fixes the error since I explicitly did a drop of page in the original example. Here the block is doing an implicit drop of page, but I don't see the fundamental difference. Is this a bug in the Rust compiler?

// all non-fatal errors bubble up to this function
async fn process(url: Url) -> Result<()> {
    let links = {
        let bytes = fetch(url.clone()).await?;
        // TODO: Is there a way to do this w/o clone?
        let page = String::from_utf8(bytes.clone())?;
        let page = kuchiki::parse_html().one(page);
        let input = get_training_input(&page).ok_or(anyhow!("No training input for: {:?}", url))?;
        let output = get_training_output(&page, &url);

        let json = json!({
            "raw": bytes,
            "input": input,
            "labels": output,
        });

        //Add JSON to the saver
        SAVER.add(json);

        get_links(&page, url)
    };
    for url in &links {
        add_url(url).await.unwrap();
    }
    Ok(())
}
#3

The compiler only takes in scope information to determine Send-ness. It's a known problem.

1 Like
#4

@alice, do you know if there is an active effort to update the compiler to support dropping locks before .awaiting, allowing the code to compile? In cases where a lock is being obtained in an outermost branch, then, 4-5 nests in, the code needs to .await, the proposed mechanism above leads to poorly-legable code. It makes more sense just to add one-line of unsafe code over a future wrapper than it does re-writing a bunch of code

#5

It has been this way for a while. I assume it will be fixed eventually, but I don't know when.

One pattern you may find useful is to encapsulate your non-Send type in a non-async function, and just call that method from async code. Something like this:

async fn process(url: Url) -> Result<()> {
    let links = page_to_links(url.clone(), fetch(url).await?)?;
    for url in &links {
        add_url(url).await.unwrap();
    }
    Ok(())
}

fn page_to_links(url: Url, bytes: Vec<u8>) -> Result<Vec<Link>> {
    let page = String::from_utf8(bytes)?;
    let page = kuchiki::parse_html().one(page);
    let input = get_training_input(&page).ok_or(anyhow!("No training input for: {:?}", url))?;
    let output = get_training_output(&page, &url);

    let json = json!({
        "raw": bytes,
        "input": input,
        "labels": output,
    });
    
    SAVER.add(json);

    Ok(get_links(&page, url))
}

I strongly recommend not using unsafe code to circumvent this.

3 Likes
#6

It looks like there's an open issue with no recent activity: An async fn which isn't Send but which should be? · Issue #63768 · rust-lang/rust · GitHub