Rollup merge of #104299 - mkrasnitski:discriminant-transmute-docs, r=oli-obk

Clarify stability guarantee for lifetimes in enum discriminants

Since `std::mem::Discriminant` erases lifetimes, it should be clarified that changing the concrete value of a lifetime parameter does not change the value of an enum discriminant for a given variant. This is useful as it guarantees that it is safe to transmute `Discriminant<Foo<'a>>` to `Discriminant<Foo<'b>>` for any combination of `'a` and `'b`. This also holds for type-generics as long as the type parameters do not change, e.g. `Discriminant<Foo<T, 'a>>` can be transmuted to `Discriminant<Foo<T, 'b>>`.

Side note: Is what I've written actually enough to imply soundness (or rather codify it), or should it specifically be spelled out that it's OK to transmute in the above way?

1 files changed, 5 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/library/core/src/mem/mod.rs b/library/core/src/mem/mod.rs
index 732fcce0f29..bc701d97bbb 100644
--- a/library/core/src/mem/mod.rs
+++ b/library/core/src/mem/mod.rs
@@ -1126,6 +1126,11 @@ impl<T> fmt::Debug for Discriminant<T> {
 ///
 /// [Reference]: ../../reference/items/enumerations.html#custom-discriminant-values-for-fieldless-enumerations
 ///
+/// The value of a [`Discriminant<T>`] is independent of any *lifetimes* in `T`. As such, reading
+/// or writing a `Discriminant<Foo<'a>>` as a `Discriminant<Foo<'b>>` (whether via [`transmute`] or
+/// otherwise) is always sound. Note that this is **not** true for other kinds of generic
+/// parameters; `Discriminant<Foo<A>>` and `Discriminant<Foo<B>>` might be incompatible.
+///
 /// # Examples
 ///
 /// This can be used to compare enums that carry data, while disregarding