Rust GCC backend: Why and how

30 points by dryya

Let's show an example with this Rust function:
fn t(a: &i32) -> i32 {
    *a
}
The C equivalent looks like this:
int t(int *a) {
  if (!a) {
    return -1;
  }
  return *a;
}

...why? surely the equivalent C code would be

int t(int *a) {
    return *a;
}

fanf
The way to write a non-NULL pointer argument in C is
```
int t(int a[static 1]) {
    return *a;
}
```
It’s a pity this feature has such obnoxious and obscure syntax that it’s basically never used. And non-NULL pointers can only be specified as function arguments, so you can’t typedef a nicer spelling. Half-arsed.