[swift-dev] UnsafeMutablePointer.init()

[Guillaume Lessard]

In the currently planned version of the future, UnsafeMutablePointer loses its no-parameter initializer. I saw this as unnecessary, but it didn’t raise a red flag for me until trying to initialize a pthread_t in cross-platform code.

On Darwin, pthread_t maps to UnsafeMutablePointer:
public typealias pthread_t = __darwin_pthread_t
public typealias __darwin_pthread_t = UnsafeMutablePointer<_opaque_pthread_t>

On Linux, it does not (from /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/bits/pthreadtypes.h):
typedef unsigned long int pthread_t;

As a result, there is no longer an initializer that works in both cases without generating a deprecation warning.


Is the solution to fix this with new import overlays, or to reinstate UnsafeMutablePointer.init() ?

Cheers,
Guillaume Lessard