DROPS

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.15

Spegion: Implicit and Non-Lexical Regions with Sized Allocations

Authors: Jack Hughes, Michael Vollmer, and Mark Batty

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 333, 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)

Abstract

Region based memory management is a powerful tool designed with the goal of ensuring memory safety statically. The region calculus of Tofte and Talpin is a well known example of a region based system, which uses regions to manage memory in a stack-like fashion. However, the region calculus is lexically scoped and requires explicit annotation of memory regions, which can be cumbersome for the programmer. Other systems have addressed non-lexical regions, but these approaches typically require the use of a substructural type system to track the lifetimes of regions. We present Spegion, a language with implicit non-lexical regions, which provides these same memory safety guarantees for programs that go beyond using memory allocation in a stack-like manner. We are able to achieve this with a concise syntax, and without the use of substructural types, relying instead on an effect system to enforce constraints on region allocation and deallocation. These regions may be divided into sub-regions, i.e., Splittable rEgions, allowing fine grained control over memory allocation. Furthermore, Spegion permits sized allocations, where each value has an associated size which is used to ensure that regions are not over-allocated into. We present a type system for Spegion and prove it is type safe with respect to a small-step operational semantics.

Cite as

Jack Hughes, Michael Vollmer, and Mark Batty. Spegion: Implicit and Non-Lexical Regions with Sized Allocations. In 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 333, pp. 15:1-15:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{hughes_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.15,
  author =	{Hughes, Jack and Vollmer, Michael and Batty, Mark},
  title =	{{Spegion: Implicit and Non-Lexical Regions with Sized Allocations}},
  booktitle =	{39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)},
  pages =	{15:1--15:26},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-373-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{333},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.15},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-233082},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.15},
  annote =	{Keywords: Regions, Type Systems, Effect Systems, Programming Languages, Memory}
}

Document

Experience Paper

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2023.39

Rust for Morello: Always-On Memory Safety, Even in Unsafe Code (Experience Paper)

Authors: Sarah Harris, Simon Cooksey, Michael Vollmer, and Mark Batty

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 263, 37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023)

Abstract

Memory safety issues are a serious concern in systems programming. Rust is a systems language that provides memory safety through a combination of a static checks embodied in the type system and ad hoc dynamic checks inserted where this analysis becomes impractical. The Morello prototype architecture from ARM uses capabilities, fat pointers augmented with object bounds information, to catch failures of memory safety. This paper presents a compiler from Rust to the Morello architecture, together with a comparison of the performance of Rust’s runtime safety checks and the hardware-supported checks of Morello. The cost of Morello’s always-on memory safety guarantees is 39% in our 19 benchmark suites from the Rust crates repository (comprising 870 total benchmarks). For this cost, Morello’s capabilities ensure that even unsafe Rust code benefits from memory safety guarantees.

Cite as

Sarah Harris, Simon Cooksey, Michael Vollmer, and Mark Batty. Rust for Morello: Always-On Memory Safety, Even in Unsafe Code (Experience Paper). In 37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 263, pp. 39:1-39:27, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{harris_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2023.39,
  author =	{Harris, Sarah and Cooksey, Simon and Vollmer, Michael and Batty, Mark},
  title =	{{Rust for Morello: Always-On Memory Safety, Even in Unsafe Code}},
  booktitle =	{37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023)},
  pages =	{39:1--39:27},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-281-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{263},
  editor =	{Ali, Karim and Salvaneschi, Guido},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2023.39},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-182322},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2023.39},
  annote =	{Keywords: Compilers, Rust, Memory Safety, CHERI}
}

Document

Artifact

DOI: 10.4230/DARTS.9.2.25

Rust for Morello: Always-On Memory Safety, Even in Unsafe Code (Artifact)

Authors: Sarah Harris, Simon Cooksey, Michael Vollmer, and Mark Batty

Published in: DARTS, Volume 9, Issue 2, Special Issue of the 37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023)

Abstract

Cite as

Sarah Harris, Simon Cooksey, Michael Vollmer, and Mark Batty. Rust for Morello: Always-On Memory Safety, Even in Unsafe Code (Artifact). In Special Issue of the 37th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2023). Dagstuhl Artifacts Series (DARTS), Volume 9, Issue 2, pp. 25:1-25:2, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@Article{harris_et_al:DARTS.9.2.25,
  author =	{Harris, Sarah and Cooksey, Simon and Vollmer, Michael and Batty, Mark},
  title =	{{Rust for Morello: Always-On Memory Safety, Even in Unsafe Code (Artifact)}},
  pages =	{25:1--25:2},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Artifacts Series},
  ISSN =	{2509-8195},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{9},
  number =	{2},
  editor =	{Harris, Sarah and Cooksey, Simon and Vollmer, Michael and Batty, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DARTS.9.2.25},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-182650},
  doi =		{10.4230/DARTS.9.2.25},
  annote =	{Keywords: Compilers, Rust, Memory Safety, CHERI}
}

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Documents authored by Batty, Mark

Spegion: Implicit and Non-Lexical Regions with Sized Allocations

Abstract

Cite as

Rust for Morello: Always-On Memory Safety, Even in Unsafe Code (Experience Paper)

Abstract

Cite as

Rust for Morello: Always-On Memory Safety, Even in Unsafe Code (Artifact)

Abstract

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