Garbage collection is contrarian

Published 2026-01-09 by Aapo Alasuutari

Previously on this blog I’ve written about how Nova JavaScript engine models garbage collection using the Rust borrow checker and how to work with it, I’ve rambled about how I came up with the model, and I’ve written about the philosophical underpinnings of garbage collection in general. Most importantly I have, together with a lot of contributors, written a JavaScript engine encompassing more than 100,000 lines of Rust using this model which is equal parts excellent and awful. It is excellent in that it manages to explain garbage collected handles in such a way that the borrow checker can check that unrooted handles are not kept on stack past garbage collection safepoints, but it is awful in how it achieves this, turning code into a soup of let handle = handle.bind(nogc) and handle.unbind() calls. A Norwegian university employee said of the system just last month: "That’s worse than C++."

This entire time, I’ve been working with this model with the assumption that it is the correct way to model garbage collection, and that the manual aspects and some limitations of it are simply caused by limitations of the Rust borrow checker. Much of this changed last weekend because I was writing a safety comment to explain a very contrarian limitation of the system.

Working with a garbage collected heap

A garbage collected system always has some heap structure wherein it stores the garbage collected data. The heap will then contain garbage collected handles, ie. self-references. Let’s consider a singular handle Handle<'_, T> stored on the heap and try to figure out what is the correct lifetime that we should ascribe to '_.

Because this is a garbage collected system, as long as this Handle<'_, T> exists on the heap (and is itself reachable from some root) then the T is kept alive as well. It is incorrect for the Handle to be alive but the T to be dead, but once the Handle is dropped by the garbage collector it is also free to drop the T. This also applies to moving the T: conceptually we can say that if the data is moved, then it should first be copied into a new location, then a new Handle<'_, T> should replace the old handle, and only after that are we allowed to drop the original T. (Also note how this relates with eg. tombstones in concrete garbage collector implementations.) When the heap is dropped, all Handles within are likewise dropped, but if the heap stays alive until the end of the program then so do the Handles. It thus seems like the correct lifetime is some 'external that is determined by the heap’s owner, but for convenience’s sake we’ll choose to use the 'static lifetime here.

Now, consider a singular handle Handle<'_, T> on the stack, and remember that these are unrooted handles and that our garbage collector does not do stack scanning. That means that the T is only guaranteed to exist until the next garbage collection run: the fact that we have a Handle<'_, T> in the first place means that the T should at least exist when we get the handle, but once garbage collection runs it might have dropped or moved the T such that our handle no longer points to a valid value. The lifetime we can ascribe to Handle is thus some 'local lifetime during which it is guaranteed that garbage collection does not happen. This 'local lifetime is obviously shorter than 'static. Now imagine we get a mutable reference to the handle on the heap and try to write a copy of our local handle into it, and watch what happens:

let local_handle: Handle<'local, T> = local;
let heap_mut: &mut Handle<'static, T> = heap.get_mut();
*heap_mut = local_handle;

In garbage collection terms this is (basically) the act of "rooting" the local handle: we store the local handle on the heap where the garbage collector can see it, thus increasing its lifetime. This code is therefore completely fine from a logical standpoint. But! If we do this in the Nova JavaScript engine of today, it does not compile: our handles are covariant on their lifetime parameter, just like normal references, and using Rust references the above would look like this:

let local_handle: &'local T = &0;
let heap_mut: &mut &'static T = heap.get_mut();
*heap_mut = local_handle;

This absolutely does not and should not compile: what the code here is saying is "heap_mut is a place that can store a reference to a T as long as that reference is valid until the end of the program", but we’re trying to store a reference that is only valid until the end of this function call. Our reference’s lifetime is too short, and allowing the code to compile would lead to use-after-free. So, obviously covariant lifetimes for garbage collected handles do not work. You can probably find many articles on the Internet decrying the borrow checker for not allowing this, but it is absolutely correct to stop us from doing use-after-free here. Yet, for garbage collected handles this is what we want to do and to do that we must turn to unsafe Rust. This is the kind of code that I was writing a safety comment on last weekend. Boiled down to its essentials, it looked much like this:

let local_handle: Handle<'local, T> = local;
let heap_mut: &mut Handle<'static, T> = heap.get_mut();
// SAFETY: It is safe to shorten the lifetime of a Handle from the heap to a
// local lifetime, as making a copy of the Handle must make it 'local and
// conversely, storing a 'local Handle onto the heap makes it 'static.
let heap_mut: &mut Handle<'local, T> = unsafe { core::mem::transmute(heap_mut) };
*heap_mut = local_handle;

And then it hit me: this is (lifetime) contravariance!

Contrary thinking

Contravariant lifetimes are a painful thing to try to reason about. The basic idea of contravariance in type systems is simple enough: given two types T and U where T ≤ U (T is more specific than U, or T is a subtype of the supertype U), a generic type C<X> is contravariant if C<U> ≤ C<T> (C<U> is more specific than C<T>, or C<U> is a subtype of the supertype C<T>). Note how the order reverses!

An example of a contravariant generic type is a function taking one generic parameter, f<T>(T). If I ask you for an animal and you give me a cat, this is okay: a cat is a subtype of animal. If I ask for a function that can be called with any animal and you give me a function that can be called with only cats, this is not okay: a function that takes any cat is not a subtype of a function that takes any animal. Despite Cat ≤ Animal the order reverses in f(Animal) ≤ f(Cat).

For lifetimes this means the following: when I ask you for a lifetime 'a, in the covariant case you can give me a lifetime that is equal or longer than 'a. Think for instance of a function taking &'a T: it’s okay if you call the function with a &'static T as I will simply use it as if it had a shorter lifetime. In the contravariant case you can give me a lifetime that is equal or smaller than 'a: to show this in Rust we use a fn(&'a T), or "give me a function that can be called with a reference of lifetime 'a."

Now when a function takes a fn(&'a T) it means that there is some lifetime 'a during which this function can be called. The function can of course be called with references that are valid for longer (as long as that longer reference is still valid during at least part of the 'a lifetime). But as we hold the function, we can also "get ahead of callers" and expand the lifetime we require of callers ourselves. We do this by reassigning the function into some place with the type fn(&'static T) (alternatively use some other lifetime 'external longer than 'a), ie. we assign a complex type (function taking one reference as a parameter) with a shorter lifetime parameter 'a in place of a complex type with a longer lifetime parameter 'static. Note that this doesn’t mean that we expand the 'a lifetime to 'static, it just means that we can use a complex type with a shorter lifetime in place of one with a longer lifetime. In function parameter terms, we (spuriously) require a longer lifetime of callers, while the function internally still considers all parameters to have the shorter lifetime 'a.

A great example of this in action comes from Boxy over in the Rust language Zulip:

static BORROW: T = 0;

fn foo<'a>(fnptr: fn(&'a T)) {
// As the caller we can shrink the lifetime of `BORROW` before passing it to
// `fnptr` which expects a borrow of lifetime `'a`
let local: &'a T = &BORROW;
fnptr(local);

// Alternatively we can have the function pointer itself do this for all of
// its callers!
let local_fnptr: fn(&'static T) = fnptr;
local_fnptr(&BORROW);

// It may also be helpful to realise we can *explicitly* perform this
// implicit subtyping by writing it as a closure
let local_closure = |param: &'static T| {
let param: &'a T = param;
fnptr(param);
};
local_closure(&BORROW);
}

Rust Playground

Now, putting this into action with custom contravariant lifetime types is where things really start to get convoluted. The function example is simple enough, but let’s rewrite it using custom types:

static BORROW: &'static T = &T::new();

fn foo<'a>(cov: Contravariant<'a, T>) {
let local: &'a T = BORROW;
cov.f(local);

let local_cov: Contravariant<'static, T> = cov;
local_cov.f(BORROW);

let local_closure = |param: &'static T| {
let param: &'a T = param;
cov.f(param);
};
local_closure(BORROW);
}

Rust Playground

Now that might already make your head spin! We take in a parameter Contravariant<'a, T> but then we can use that value in place of Contravariant<'static, T>! That looks pretty odd indeed, but that’s just contravariance for you.

Now that we’re dealing with contravariant reference types, we need to think about they really mean. To help with that, let’s introduce another way of thinking about contravariance: contravariant types can be interpreted as "sinks" into which a type or its subtype can be dumped into, never to return. This hints to us that a contravariant reference is a "write-only reference". You can never safely and unconditionally read from them but you can write into them for their entire lifetime. What’s the point in that, then? Well, it depends on the API built around it, but there are possibilities here. An example of a familiar write-only type is the good old MaybeUninit, but even that is not write-only forever but only until you’re sure it is safe to read. So too it goes with contravariant references: they can only be written into until you’re sure it is safe to read from it as well. The tough part is then finding how to model the proof needed to safely read through a contravariant reference, or in other words how to design safe APIs around them.

There is an added wrinkle to this: we probably need a new feature in Rust to make contravariant references safe to pass between functions. That feature is lifetimes that do not live until the end of the callee function: a contravariant reference by itself does not guarantee that it is safe to read through it. Thus, receiving one as a parameter to a function is rife with danger: the reference cannot be assumed to be valid unless you have proof and it might be made unsound to read from by work done within your own function, yet its lifetime is the standard Rust "until the end of this function call" lifetime parameter and that helps us none when trying to write safe code.

In current Rust, only lifetimes that are created within your function can also end within it. So, inside a function we can create a contravariant reference and then "mix" or combine its lifetime with a normal covariant reference. This makes the contravariant reference automatically invalidate after the covariant reference invalidates: this can be used to design a safe API based around mixing contravariant references with a covariant reference to a proof value. Unlike with normal covariant references, it is then possible to pass both the contravariant reference and the "mixed in" proof value (not by reference but by value!) into a function call at the same time, enabling transfer of the proof. But in current Rust, inside the function the contravariant reference’s lifetime expands back into that familiar "until the end of this function call" and is no longer bound by that proof parameter, so this safe API does not work at function interfaces today.

This is then the problem: upon receiving a contravariant reference and a proof parameter, you must trust whoever called you to have given you valid proof and, importantly, to not have made a mistake! I’ll say that again: contravariant references as a parameter (and as a return value too) require callers (or callees) to not have made a mistake! This has been called "profoundly un-Rusty", and that’s not wrong to say as this completely wrecks the idea of local reasoning that is so fundamental to Rust’s excellence. Hence the need for passing in parameter lifetimes that end within the callee: with that we could (somehow) pass the contravariant reference in with its lifetime bound to the proof value’s existence, and that would then enable us to escape the curse of having to assume no one makes mistakes. As we well know, mistakes always happen.

That being said, this fundamental unsafety of contravariant references is not a blocker as long as you take it into account: in Nova we do not rely on our handles being mistake-free, which means that we always check their validity before using them for reads. A mistake with handles then leads to either a bounds check induced panic, or to one JavaScript value changing into another one of the same type. The former is unfortunate but safe, the latter is absolutely a bad thing to happen and constitutes JavaScript language-wise "undefined behaviour": at worst this could be utilised as an attack vector against a JavaScript runtime running Nova, so this is not a good thing generally, but it is also not an immediate guarantee of Rust undefined behaviour happening and leading to the end of all that is pure and holy. If need be, we can also check against this using generational handles: we luckily also have 24 unused bits in heap handles that we could use for that purpose.

On the double? On the contrary!

It’s time to start thinking about what this concretely means for the Nova JavaScript engine. It is clear that contravariant handles is what we will have: they match the actual semantics of garbage collection, and their big unsafety downside is something that we already have to deal with. So while I have some more stones to turn and tires to kick before I’m fully ready to start working, it does seem like Nova’s JavaScript Values are in for a big change in the near future! There are some excellent things that come from this change. Let’s take an example; this is some code from the engine today:

pub(crate) fn set<'a>(
agent: &mut Agent,
o: Object,
p: PropertyKey,
v: Value,
throw: bool,
mut gc: GcScope<'a, '_>,
) -> JsResult<'a, ()> {
let nogc = gc.nogc();
let o = o.bind(nogc);
let p = p.bind(nogc);
let v = v.bind(nogc);
let scoped_p = p.scope(agent, nogc);
let success = o
.unbind()
.internal_set(agent, p.unbind(), v.unbind(), o.unbind().into(), gc.reborrow())
.unbind()?;
let gc = gc.into_nogc();
let p = scoped_p.get(agent).bind(gc);
if !success && throw {
return throw_set_error(agent, p, gc).into();
}
Ok(())
}

This is the function used to set a value on an object, triggered whenever JavaScript code performs o.p = v; or o[p] = v;. It is a "flawless" piece of Nova engine code in that it is both fully correct from the garbage collector’s standpoint and also written so that the borrow checker will verify the GC safety: every handle parameter is bound to the GC lifetime at function entry, and so is the PropertyValue<'static> returned from the scoped_p.get(agent) call even though at that point we’re already past a let gc = gc.into_nogc(); call which is proof that there are no more garbage collection safepoints within the function. Unfortunately, this flawlessness comes at the price of 7 .unbind() calls. These are necessary because each handle carries a shared covariant reference to the Gc parameter and these invalidate when gc.reborrow() is called but Rust their covariant lifetime requires them to stay valid until the end of the internal_set call or longer, which they cannot do: hence the handles must be unbound at function call interfaces so that they forget the covariant reference.

So, what would this look like with contravariant handles? Let’s take a look:

pub(crate) fn set<'a>(
agent: &mut Agent,
o: Object,
p: PropertyKey,
v: Value,
throw: bool,
mut gc: GcScope<'a>,
) -> JsResult<'a, ()> {
let nogc = gc.nogc();
let o = o.local();
nogc.join(o);
let p = p.local();
nogc.join(p);
let v = v.local();
nogc.join(v);
let scoped_p = p.scope(agent, nogc);
let success = o.internal_set(agent, p, v, o.into(), gc.reborrow())?;
let gc = gc.into_nogc();
let p = scoped_p.get(agent);
gc.join(p);
if !success && throw {
return Err(throw_set_error(agent, p, gc));
}
Ok(())
}

The most important change here is the actual internal_set call: the .unbind() and .bind(gc.nogc()) calls have all disappeared. Especially important from an ergonomics standpoint is that we can now re-throw errors using the ? operator without having to do the chain of .unbind()?.bind(gc.nogc()). There are nearly 800 places in the Nova codebase where this song and dance is performed currently, and getting rid of that will probably bring a smile to many a contributor’s face.

But we do lose some convenience as well: binding parameters is no longer just let o = o.bind(nogc); but instead requires two calls. First is the let o = o.local(); call: this shadows the handle (parameter that has the problematic "until the end of this function call" lifetime) with a locally created handle whose lifetime will end within this function. The second is the nogc.join(o); call: this "mixes" or combines the lifetime of the the contravariant handle with the covariant lifetime of a local &Gc reference used in the gc.nogc() call. (You can also consider this to be the point when we write a valid value into our "sink" and thus prove to ourselves that it is safe to read from the normally write-only reference.) When we then create a local &mut Gc reference in the gc.reborrow() call, it invalidates the &Gc reference that our handle’s lifetime is mixed up with which then invalidates the handles. Importantly, however, for contravariant references a shorter lifetime can be used in place of a longer one: this means that the handles that we pass to the internal_set as parameters just before the gc.reborrow() call (which is conveniently the last parameter and thus last to be evaluated for essentially this very reason), can safely be used in place of the function’s parameters with the lifetime of "until the end of this call". And because this does not expand the &Gc reference lifetime to encompass until the end of the internal_set (just like using a &'static T in place of a &'a T does not expand 'a to 'static), the invalidation does not invalidate the already passed-in contravariant handles.

Being able to thus pass "bound" handles into calls together with the Gc<'_> marker type is such an important thing that the loss of some binding convenience is small potatoes in comparison. Much of the convenience can be regained using a simple macro anyway.

Thinking bigger

I hope I’ve managed to convince you that garbage collected handles are indeed lifetime contravariant, and that contravariant references are not merely a bug in the Rust lifetime system but an actual thing that can be ascribed a meaning of some sort. I also expect I’ve not managed to make a very strong or concise case as to what that meaning is, as I frankly do not yet know it myself either. The lifetime contravariance of garbage collected handles does give us a hint, though: garbage collection is generally applied upon cyclical structures.

I believe, quite strongly yet without proof, that contravariant references have a part to play in describing self-referential data structures in general. What kind of a part that will be and what their role will be I do not yet know, but it seems clear to me that with the right API designs contravariant references can bring the joy of lifetimes to many avenues where they previously were barred from. If you’re interested, I recommend trying out writing a doubly-linked list using contravariant references in place of node pointers, or seeing what it would look like to pass an 'external lifetime through a self-referential data structure that internally binds to contravariant references. Especially interesting would be seeing if that lifetime can also be threaded back through, so that some callback API coming from the data structure back to the owner could benefit from contravariant lifetimes joining the two together.

I expect it might bring some surprising and positive results! Either that, or I am being a total crackpot. I guess time and effort will tell. Until then, stay contrary!