Rollup merge of #53104 - nivkner:unpin_doc, r=RalfJung

expand the documentation on the `Unpin` trait

provides an overview of the Pin API which the trait is for,
and show how it can be used in making self referencial structs

part of #49150

1 files changed, 24 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/src/libcore/marker.rs b/src/libcore/marker.rs
index d18e167fc3f..e73d998fde8 100644
--- a/src/libcore/marker.rs
+++ b/src/libcore/marker.rs
@@ -603,15 +603,35 @@ unsafe impl<T: ?Sized> Freeze for *mut T {}
 unsafe impl<'a, T: ?Sized> Freeze for &'a T {}
 unsafe impl<'a, T: ?Sized> Freeze for &'a mut T {}
 
-/// Types which can be moved out of a `PinMut`.
+/// Types which can be safely moved after being pinned.
 ///
-/// The `Unpin` trait is used to control the behavior of the [`PinMut`] type. If a
-/// type implements `Unpin`, it is safe to move a value of that type out of the
-/// `PinMut` pointer.
+/// Since Rust itself has no notion of immovable types, and will consider moves to always be safe,
+/// this trait cannot prevent types from moving by itself.
+///
+/// Instead it can be used to prevent moves through the type system,
+/// by controlling the behavior of special pointer types like [`PinMut`],
+/// which "pin" the type in place by not allowing it to be moved out of them.
+///
+/// Implementing this trait lifts the restrictions of pinning off a type,
+/// which then allows it to move out with functions such as [`replace`].
+///
+/// So this, for example, can only be done on types implementing `Unpin`:
+///
+/// ```rust
+/// #![feature(pin)]
+/// use std::mem::{PinMut, replace};
+///
+/// let mut string = "this".to_string();
+/// let mut pinned_string = PinMut::new(&mut string);
+///
+/// // dereferencing the pointer mutably is only possible because String implements Unpin
+/// replace(&mut *pinned_string, "other".to_string());
+/// ```
 ///
 /// This trait is automatically implemented for almost every type.
 ///
 /// [`PinMut`]: ../mem/struct.PinMut.html
+/// [`replace`]: ../mem/fn.replace.html
 #[unstable(feature = "pin", issue = "49150")]
 pub auto trait Unpin {}