discuss deadlocks in the std::io::pipe() example

Author: oconnor663

library/std/src/io/pipe.rs

@@ -38,30 +38,44 @@ use crate::sys_common::{FromInner, IntoInner};
 /// > not rely on a particular capacity: an application should be designed so that a reading process
 /// > consumes data as soon as it is available, so that a writing process does not remain blocked.
 ///
-/// # Examples
+/// # Example
 ///
 /// ```no_run
 /// # #[cfg(miri)] fn main() {}
 /// # #[cfg(not(miri))]
 /// # fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> {
+/// use std::io::{Read, Write, pipe};
 /// use std::process::Command;
-/// use std::io::{pipe, Read, Write};
-/// let (ping_rx, mut ping_tx) = pipe()?;
-/// let (mut pong_rx, pong_tx) = pipe()?;
+/// let (ping_reader, mut ping_writer) = pipe()?;
+/// let (mut pong_reader, pong_writer) = pipe()?;
 ///
-/// // Spawn a process that echoes its input.
-/// let mut echo_server = Command::new("cat").stdin(ping_rx).stdout(pong_tx).spawn()?;
+/// // Spawn a child process that echoes its input.
+/// let mut echo_command = Command::new("cat");
+/// echo_command.stdin(ping_reader);
+/// echo_command.stdout(pong_writer);
+/// let mut echo_child = echo_command.spawn()?;
 ///
-/// ping_tx.write_all(b"hello")?;
-/// // Close to unblock echo_server's reader.
-/// drop(ping_tx);
+/// // Send input to the child process. Note that because we're writing all the input before we
+/// // read any output, this could deadlock if the child's input and output pipe buffers both
+/// // filled up. Those buffers are usually at least a few KB, so "hello" is fine, but for longer
+/// // inputs we'd need to read and write at the same time, e.g. using threads.
+/// ping_writer.write_all(b"hello")?;
+///
+/// // `cat` exits when it reads EOF from stdin, but that can't happen while any ping writer
+/// // remains open. We need to drop our ping writer, or read_to_string will deadlock below.
+/// drop(ping_writer);
+///
+/// // The pong reader can't report EOF while any pong writer remains open. Our Command object is
+/// // holding a pong writer, and again read_to_string will deadlock if we don't drop it.
+/// drop(echo_command);
 ///
 /// let mut buf = String::new();
-/// // Block until echo_server's writer is closed.
-/// pong_rx.read_to_string(&mut buf)?;
+/// // Block until `cat` closes its stdout (a pong writer).
+/// pong_reader.read_to_string(&mut buf)?;
 /// assert_eq!(&buf, "hello");
 ///
-/// echo_server.wait()?;
+/// // At this point we know `cat` has exited, but we still need to wait to clean up the "zombie".
+/// echo_child.wait()?;
 /// # Ok(())
 /// # }
 /// ```