---
title: '"What The Hardware Does" is not What Your Program Does: Uninitialized Memory'
-categories: rust research
+categories: rust research programming
forum: https://internals.rust-lang.org/t/what-the-hardware-does-is-not-what-your-program-does-uninitialized-memory/10561
---
}
fn main() {
- let x: u8 = unsafe { mem::uninitialized() };
+ let x: u8 = unsafe { mem::MaybeUninit::uninit().assume_init() };
assert!(always_returns_true(x));
}
{% endhighlight %}
+**Update (2022-11-17):** Switched to `MaybeUninit` to keep the example working in newer versions of Rust.
+
+**Update (2024-10-18):** See [here](https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=nightly&mode=release&edition=2021&gist=57ac24deac2402a40c9e1c9e4df3a4d2) for a version that works with Rust 1.82.
+
`always_returns_true` is a function that, clearly, will return `true` for any possible 8-bit unsigned integer.
-After all, *every* possible value for `x` will be less than 150 or bigger than 120.
+After all, *every* possible value for `x` will be either less than 120, equal to 120, or bigger than 120.
A quick loop [confirms this](https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=stable&mode=release&edition=2018&gist=65b690fa3c1691e11d4d45955358cdbe).
-However, if you [run the example](https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=stable&mode=release&edition=2018&gist=812fe3c8655bfedcea37bb18bb70a945), you can see the assertion fail.[^godbolt]
+However, if you [run the example](https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=stable&mode=release&edition=2018&gist=c17d299cacd626c572def0c4262aed69), you can see the assertion fail.[^godbolt]
[^godbolt]: In case this changes with future Rust versions, [here is the same example on godbolt](https://godbolt.org/z/9G67hP); the `xor eax, eax` indicates that the function returns 0, aka `false`. And [here is a version for C++](https://godbolt.org/z/TWrvcq).