rust - Cannot borrow as mutable more than once at a time in one code - but can in another very similar

Question

I've this snippet that doesn't pass the borrow checker:

use std::collections::HashMap;

enum Error {
    FunctionNotFound,
}

#[derive(Copy, Clone)]
struct Function<'a> {
    name: &'a str,
    code: &'a [u32],
}

struct Context<'a> {
    program: HashMap<&'a str, Function<'a>>,
    call_stack: Vec<Function<'a>>,
}

impl<'a> Context<'a> {
    fn get_function(&'a mut self, fun_name: &'a str) -> Result<Function<'a>, Error> {
        self.program
            .get(fun_name)
            .map(|f| *f)
            .ok_or(Error::FunctionNotFound)
    }

    fn call(&'a mut self, fun_name: &'a str) -> Result<(), Error> {
        let fun = try!(self.get_function(fun_name));

        self.call_stack.push(fun);

        Ok(())
    }
}

fn main() {}

error[E0499]: cannot borrow `self.call_stack` as mutable more than once at a time
  --> src/main.rs:29:9
   |
27 |         let fun = try!(self.get_function(fun_name));
   |                        ---- first mutable borrow occurs here
28 | 
29 |         self.call_stack.push(fun);
   |         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ second mutable borrow occurs here
...
32 |     }
   |     - first borrow ends here

My gut feeling is that the problem is tied to the fact that HashMap returns either None or a reference of the value inside the data structure. But I don't want that: my intention is that self.get_function should return either a byte copy of the stored value or an error (that's why I put .map(|f| *f), and Function is Copy).

Changing &'a mut self to something else doesn't help.

However, the following snippet, somewhat similar in spirit, is accepted:

#[derive(Debug)]
enum Error {
    StackUnderflow,
}

struct Context {
    stack: Vec<u32>,
}

impl Context {
    fn pop(&mut self) -> Result<u32, Error> {
        self.stack.pop().ok_or(Error::StackUnderflow)
    }

    fn add(&mut self) -> Result<(), Error> {
        let a = try!(self.pop());
        let b = try!(self.pop());

        self.stack.push(a + b);
        Ok(())
    }
}

fn main() {
    let mut a = Context { stack: vec![1, 2] };
    a.add().unwrap();
    println!("{:?}", a.stack);
}

Now I'm confused. What is the problem with the first snippet? Why doesn't it happen in the second?

The snippets are part of a larger piece of code. In order to provide more context, this on the Rust Playground shows a more complete example with the faulty code, and this shows an earlier version without HashMap, which passes the borrow checker and runs normally.

Answer 1

You only need to remove unnecessary lifetime qualifiers in order for your code to compile:

fn get_function(&mut self, fun_name: &str) -> Result<Function<'a>, Error> { ... }

fn call(&mut self, fun_name: &str) -> Result<(), Error> { ... }

Your problem was that you tied the lifetime of &mut self and the lifetime of the value stored in it (Function<'a>), which is in most cases unnecessary. With this dependency which was present in get_function() definition, the compiler had to assume that the result of the call self.get_function(...) borrows self, and hence it prohibits you from borrowing it again.

Lifetime on &str argument is also unnecessary - it just limits the possible set of argument values for no reason. Your key can be a string with arbitrary lifetime, not just 'a.