The Rust Programming Language

Reference Cycles Can Leak Memory

Rc<T> and RefCell<T> can create reference cycles where items refer to each other, preventing cleanup since reference counts never reach zero.

Creating a Reference Cycle

use crate::List::{Cons, Nil};
use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::Rc;

#[derive(Debug)]
enum List {
    Cons(i32, RefCell<Rc<List>>),
    Nil,
}

impl List {
    fn tail(&self) -> Option<&RefCell<Rc<List>>> {
        match self {
            Cons(_, item) => Some(item),
            Nil => None,
        }
    }
}

fn main() {}

Creating circular references:

use crate::List::{Cons, Nil};
use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::Rc;

#[derive(Debug)]
enum List {
    Cons(i32, RefCell<Rc<List>>),
    Nil,
}

impl List {
    fn tail(&self) -> Option<&RefCell<Rc<List>>> {
        match self {
            Cons(_, item) => Some(item),
            Nil => None,
        }
    }
}

fn main() {
    let a = Rc::new(Cons(5, RefCell::new(Rc::new(Nil))));

    println!("a initial rc count = {}", Rc::strong_count(&a));
    println!("a next item = {:?}", a.tail());

    let b = Rc::new(Cons(10, RefCell::new(Rc::clone(&a))));

    println!("a rc count after b creation = {}", Rc::strong_count(&a));
    println!("b initial rc count = {}", Rc::strong_count(&b));
    println!("b next item = {:?}", b.tail());

    if let Some(link) = a.tail() {
        *link.borrow_mut() = Rc::clone(&b);
    }

    println!("b rc count after changing a = {}", Rc::strong_count(&b));
    println!("a rc count after changing a = {}", Rc::strong_count(&a));

    // Uncomment the next line to see that we have a cycle;
    // it will overflow the stack.
    // println!("a next item = {:?}", a.tail());
}

Output:

$ cargo run
   Compiling cons-list v0.1.0 (file:///projects/cons-list)
    Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.53s
     Running `target/debug/cons-list`
a initial rc count = 1
a next item = Some(RefCell { value: Nil })
a rc count after b creation = 2
b initial rc count = 1
b next item = Some(RefCell { value: Cons(5, RefCell { value: Nil }) })
b rc count after changing a = 2
a rc count after changing a = 2

Both a and b have reference count 2. When they go out of scope, counts drop to 1 but never reach 0, causing a memory leak.

Preventing Reference Cycles Using Weak<T>

Weak<T> provides non-owning references that don’t affect reference counts.

• Rc::downgrade creates Weak<T> from Rc<T>
• Weak::upgrade returns Option<Rc<T>>
• Strong references control cleanup; weak references don’t

Tree Data Structure Example

use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::Rc;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Node {
    value: i32,
    children: RefCell<Vec<Rc<Node>>>,
}

fn main() {
    let leaf = Rc::new(Node {
        value: 3,
        children: RefCell::new(vec![]),
    });

    let branch = Rc::new(Node {
        value: 5,
        children: RefCell::new(vec![Rc::clone(&leaf)]),
    });
}

use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::Rc;

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Node {
    value: i32,
    children: RefCell<Vec<Rc<Node>>>,
}

fn main() {
    let leaf = Rc::new(Node {
        value: 3,
        children: RefCell::new(vec![]),
    });

    let branch = Rc::new(Node {
        value: 5,
        children: RefCell::new(vec![Rc::clone(&leaf)]),
    });
}

Adding parent references with Weak<T>:

use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::{Rc, Weak};

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Node {
    value: i32,
    parent: RefCell<Weak<Node>>,
    children: RefCell<Vec<Rc<Node>>>,
}

fn main() {
    let leaf = Rc::new(Node {
        value: 3,
        parent: RefCell::new(Weak::new()),
        children: RefCell::new(vec![]),
    });

    println!("leaf parent = {:?}", leaf.parent.borrow().upgrade());

    let branch = Rc::new(Node {
        value: 5,
        parent: RefCell::new(Weak::new()),
        children: RefCell::new(vec![Rc::clone(&leaf)]),
    });

    *leaf.parent.borrow_mut() = Rc::downgrade(&branch);

    println!("leaf parent = {:?}", leaf.parent.borrow().upgrade());
}

use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::{Rc, Weak};

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Node {
    value: i32,
    parent: RefCell<Weak<Node>>,
    children: RefCell<Vec<Rc<Node>>>,
}

fn main() {
    let leaf = Rc::new(Node {
        value: 3,
        parent: RefCell::new(Weak::new()),
        children: RefCell::new(vec![]),
    });

    println!("leaf parent = {:?}", leaf.parent.borrow().upgrade());

    let branch = Rc::new(Node {
        value: 5,
        parent: RefCell::new(Weak::new()),
        children: RefCell::new(vec![Rc::clone(&leaf)]),
    });

    *leaf.parent.borrow_mut() = Rc::downgrade(&branch);

    println!("leaf parent = {:?}", leaf.parent.borrow().upgrade());
}

Reference Count Monitoring

use std::cell::RefCell;
use std::rc::{Rc, Weak};

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Node {
    value: i32,
    parent: RefCell<Weak<Node>>,
    children: RefCell<Vec<Rc<Node>>>,
}

fn main() {
    let leaf = Rc::new(Node {
        value: 3,
        parent: RefCell::new(Weak::new()),
        children: RefCell::new(vec![]),
    });

    println!(
        "leaf strong = {}, weak = {}",
        Rc::strong_count(&leaf),
        Rc::weak_count(&leaf),
    );

    {
        let branch = Rc::new(Node {
            value: 5,
            parent: RefCell::new(Weak::new()),
            children: RefCell::new(vec![Rc::clone(&leaf)]),
        });

        *leaf.parent.borrow_mut() = Rc::downgrade(&branch);

        println!(
            "branch strong = {}, weak = {}",
            Rc::strong_count(&branch),
            Rc::weak_count(&branch),
        );

        println!(
            "leaf strong = {}, weak = {}",
            Rc::strong_count(&leaf),
            Rc::weak_count(&leaf),
        );
    }

    println!("leaf parent = {:?}", leaf.parent.borrow().upgrade());
    println!(
        "leaf strong = {}, weak = {}",
        Rc::strong_count(&leaf),
        Rc::weak_count(&leaf),
    );
}

• Rc::strong_count tracks owning references
• Rc::weak_count tracks non-owning references
• Only strong count reaching zero triggers cleanup

When branch goes out of scope, its strong count drops to 0 and gets cleaned up despite having weak references pointing to it.

Summary

Smart pointers provide different memory management patterns:

• Box<T>: Single ownership, heap allocation
• Rc<T>: Multiple ownership via reference counting
• RefCell<T>: Interior mutability with runtime borrow checking
• Weak<T>: Non-owning references to prevent cycles

Use Weak<T> for parent-child relationships where children should not own their parents, preventing reference cycles and memory leaks.