Struct tracing_core::stdlib::pin::Pin
1.33.0 · source · #[repr(transparent)]pub struct Pin<Ptr> { /* private fields */ }
Expand description
A pointer which pins its pointee in place.
Pin
is a wrapper around some kind of pointer Ptr
which makes that pointer “pin” its
pointee value in place, thus preventing the value referenced by that pointer from being moved
or otherwise invalidated at that place in memory unless it implements Unpin
.
See the pin
module documentation for a more thorough exploration of pinning.
§Pinning values with Pin<Ptr>
In order to pin a value, we wrap a pointer to that value (of some type Ptr
) in a
Pin<Ptr>
. Pin<Ptr>
can wrap any pointer type, forming a promise that the pointee
will not be moved or otherwise invalidated. If the pointee value’s type
implements Unpin
, we are free to disregard these requirements entirely and can wrap any
pointer to that value in Pin
directly via Pin::new
. If the pointee value’s type does
not implement Unpin
, then Rust will not let us use the Pin::new
function directly and
we’ll need to construct a Pin
-wrapped pointer in one of the more specialized manners
discussed below.
We call such a Pin
-wrapped pointer a pinning pointer (or pinning ref, or pinning
Box
, etc.) because its existence is the thing that is pinning the underlying pointee in
place: it is the metaphorical “pin” securing the data in place on the pinboard (in memory).
It is important to stress that the thing in the Pin
is not the value which we want to pin
itself, but rather a pointer to that value! A Pin<Ptr>
does not pin the Ptr
but rather
the pointer’s pointee value.
The most common set of types which require pinning related guarantees for soundness are the
compiler-generated state machines that implement Future
for the return value of
async fn
s. These compiler-generated Future
s may contain self-referential pointers, one
of the most common use cases for Pin
. More details on this point are provided in the
pin
module docs, but suffice it to say they require the guarantees provided by pinning to
be implemented soundly.
This requirement for the implementation of async fn
s means that the Future
trait
requires all calls to poll
to use a self: Pin<&mut Self>
parameter instead
of the usual &mut self
. Therefore, when manually polling a future, you will need to pin it
first.
You may notice that async fn
-sourced Future
s are only a small percentage of all
Future
s that exist, yet we had to modify the signature of poll
for all Future
s
to accommodate them. This is unfortunate, but there is a way that the language attempts to
alleviate the extra friction that this API choice incurs: the Unpin
trait.
The vast majority of Rust types have no reason to ever care about being pinned. These
types implement the Unpin
trait, which entirely opts all values of that type out of
pinning-related guarantees. For values of these types, pinning a value by pointing to it with a
Pin<Ptr>
will have no actual effect.
The reason this distinction exists is exactly to allow APIs like Future::poll
to take a
Pin<Ptr>
as an argument for all types while only forcing Future
types that actually
care about pinning guarantees pay the ergonomics cost. For the majority of Future
types
that don’t have a reason to care about being pinned and therefore implement Unpin
, the
Pin<&mut Self>
will act exactly like a regular &mut Self
, allowing direct
access to the underlying value. Only types that don’t implement Unpin
will be restricted.
§Pinning a value of a type that implements Unpin
If the type of the value you need to “pin” implements Unpin
, you can trivially wrap any
pointer to that value in a Pin
by calling Pin::new
.
use std::pin::Pin;
// Create a value of a type that implements `Unpin`
let mut unpin_future = std::future::ready(5);
// Pin it by creating a pinning mutable reference to it (ready to be `poll`ed!)
let my_pinned_unpin_future: Pin<&mut _> = Pin::new(&mut unpin_future);
§Pinning a value inside a Box
The simplest and most flexible way to pin a value that does not implement Unpin
is to put
that value inside a Box
and then turn that Box
into a “pinning Box
” by wrapping it
in a Pin
. You can do both of these in a single step using Box::pin
. Let’s see an
example of using this flow to pin a Future
returned from calling an async fn
, a common
use case as described above.
use std::pin::Pin;
async fn add_one(x: u32) -> u32 {
x + 1
}
// Call the async function to get a future back
let fut = add_one(42);
// Pin the future inside a pinning box
let pinned_fut: Pin<Box<_>> = Box::pin(fut);
If you have a value which is already boxed, for example a Box<dyn Future>
, you can pin
that value in-place at its current memory address using Box::into_pin
.
use std::pin::Pin;
use std::future::Future;
async fn add_one(x: u32) -> u32 {
x + 1
}
fn boxed_add_one(x: u32) -> Box<dyn Future<Output = u32>> {
Box::new(add_one(x))
}
let boxed_fut = boxed_add_one(42);
// Pin the future inside the existing box
let pinned_fut: Pin<Box<_>> = Box::into_pin(boxed_fut);
There are similar pinning methods offered on the other standard library smart pointer types
as well, like Rc
and Arc
.
§Pinning a value on the stack using pin!
There are some situations where it is desirable or even required (for example, in a #[no_std]
context where you don’t have access to the standard library or allocation in general) to
pin a value which does not implement Unpin
to its location on the stack. Doing so is
possible using the pin!
macro. See its documentation for more.
§Layout and ABI
Pin<Ptr>
is guaranteed to have the same memory layout and ABI1 as Ptr
.
There is a bit of nuance here that is still being decided about whether the aliasing semantics of
Pin<&mut T>
should be different than&mut T
, but this is true as of today. ↩
Implementations§
source§impl<Ptr> Pin<Ptr>
impl<Ptr> Pin<Ptr>
1.33.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub fn new(pointer: Ptr) -> Pin<Ptr>
pub fn new(pointer: Ptr) -> Pin<Ptr>
Construct a new Pin<Ptr>
around a pointer to some data of a type that
implements Unpin
.
Unlike Pin::new_unchecked
, this method is safe because the pointer
Ptr
dereferences to an Unpin
type, which cancels the pinning guarantees.
§Examples
use std::pin::Pin;
let mut val: u8 = 5;
// Since `val` doesn't care about being moved, we can safely create a "facade" `Pin`
// which will allow `val` to participate in `Pin`-bound apis without checking that
// pinning guarantees are actually upheld.
let mut pinned: Pin<&mut u8> = Pin::new(&mut val);
1.39.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub fn into_inner(pin: Pin<Ptr>) -> Ptr
pub fn into_inner(pin: Pin<Ptr>) -> Ptr
Unwraps this Pin<Ptr>
, returning the underlying pointer.
Doing this operation safely requires that the data pointed at by this pinning pointer
implements Unpin
so that we can ignore the pinning invariants when unwrapping it.
§Examples
use std::pin::Pin;
let mut val: u8 = 5;
let pinned: Pin<&mut u8> = Pin::new(&mut val);
// Unwrap the pin to get the underlying mutable reference to the value. We can do
// this because `val` doesn't care about being moved, so the `Pin` was just
// a "facade" anyway.
let r = Pin::into_inner(pinned);
assert_eq!(*r, 5);
source§impl<Ptr> Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: Deref,
impl<Ptr> Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: Deref,
1.33.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub unsafe fn new_unchecked(pointer: Ptr) -> Pin<Ptr>
pub unsafe fn new_unchecked(pointer: Ptr) -> Pin<Ptr>
Construct a new Pin<Ptr>
around a reference to some data of a type that
may or may not implement Unpin
.
If pointer
dereferences to an Unpin
type, Pin::new
should be used
instead.
§Safety
This constructor is unsafe because we cannot guarantee that the data
pointed to by pointer
is pinned. At its core, pinning a value means making the
guarantee that the value’s data will not be moved nor have its storage invalidated until
it gets dropped. For a more thorough explanation of pinning, see the pin
module docs.
If the caller that is constructing this Pin<Ptr>
does not ensure that the data Ptr
points to is pinned, that is a violation of the API contract and may lead to undefined
behavior in later (even safe) operations.
By using this method, you are also making a promise about the Deref
and
DerefMut
implementations of Ptr
, if they exist. Most importantly, they
must not move out of their self
arguments: Pin::as_mut
and Pin::as_ref
will call DerefMut::deref_mut
and Deref::deref
on the pointer type Ptr
and expect these methods to uphold the pinning invariants.
Moreover, by calling this method you promise that the reference Ptr
dereferences to will not be moved out of again; in particular, it
must not be possible to obtain a &mut Ptr::Target
and then
move out of that reference (using, for example mem::swap
).
For example, calling Pin::new_unchecked
on an &'a mut T
is unsafe because
while you are able to pin it for the given lifetime 'a
, you have no control
over whether it is kept pinned once 'a
ends, and therefore cannot uphold the
guarantee that a value, once pinned, remains pinned until it is dropped:
use std::mem;
use std::pin::Pin;
fn move_pinned_ref<T>(mut a: T, mut b: T) {
unsafe {
let p: Pin<&mut T> = Pin::new_unchecked(&mut a);
// This should mean the pointee `a` can never move again.
}
mem::swap(&mut a, &mut b); // Potential UB down the road ⚠️
// The address of `a` changed to `b`'s stack slot, so `a` got moved even
// though we have previously pinned it! We have violated the pinning API contract.
}
A value, once pinned, must remain pinned until it is dropped (unless its type implements
Unpin
). Because Pin<&mut T>
does not own the value, dropping the Pin
will not drop
the value and will not end the pinning contract. So moving the value after dropping the
Pin<&mut T>
is still a violation of the API contract.
Similarly, calling Pin::new_unchecked
on an Rc<T>
is unsafe because there could be
aliases to the same data that are not subject to the pinning restrictions:
use std::rc::Rc;
use std::pin::Pin;
fn move_pinned_rc<T>(mut x: Rc<T>) {
// This should mean the pointee can never move again.
let pin = unsafe { Pin::new_unchecked(Rc::clone(&x)) };
{
let p: Pin<&T> = pin.as_ref();
// ...
}
drop(pin);
let content = Rc::get_mut(&mut x).unwrap(); // Potential UB down the road ⚠️
// Now, if `x` was the only reference, we have a mutable reference to
// data that we pinned above, which we could use to move it as we have
// seen in the previous example. We have violated the pinning API contract.
}
§Pinning of closure captures
Particular care is required when using Pin::new_unchecked
in a closure:
Pin::new_unchecked(&mut var)
where var
is a by-value (moved) closure capture
implicitly makes the promise that the closure itself is pinned, and that all uses
of this closure capture respect that pinning.
use std::pin::Pin;
use std::task::Context;
use std::future::Future;
fn move_pinned_closure(mut x: impl Future, cx: &mut Context<'_>) {
// Create a closure that moves `x`, and then internally uses it in a pinned way.
let mut closure = move || unsafe {
let _ignore = Pin::new_unchecked(&mut x).poll(cx);
};
// Call the closure, so the future can assume it has been pinned.
closure();
// Move the closure somewhere else. This also moves `x`!
let mut moved = closure;
// Calling it again means we polled the future from two different locations,
// violating the pinning API contract.
moved(); // Potential UB ⚠️
}
When passing a closure to another API, it might be moving the closure any time, so
Pin::new_unchecked
on closure captures may only be used if the API explicitly documents
that the closure is pinned.
The better alternative is to avoid all that trouble and do the pinning in the outer function
instead (here using the pin!
macro):
use std::pin::pin;
use std::task::Context;
use std::future::Future;
fn move_pinned_closure(mut x: impl Future, cx: &mut Context<'_>) {
let mut x = pin!(x);
// Create a closure that captures `x: Pin<&mut _>`, which is safe to move.
let mut closure = move || {
let _ignore = x.as_mut().poll(cx);
};
// Call the closure, so the future can assume it has been pinned.
closure();
// Move the closure somewhere else.
let mut moved = closure;
// Calling it again here is fine (except that we might be polling a future that already
// returned `Poll::Ready`, but that is a separate problem).
moved();
}
1.33.0 · sourcepub fn as_ref(&self) -> Pin<&<Ptr as Deref>::Target>
pub fn as_ref(&self) -> Pin<&<Ptr as Deref>::Target>
Gets a shared reference to the pinned value this Pin
points to.
This is a generic method to go from &Pin<Pointer<T>>
to Pin<&T>
.
It is safe because, as part of the contract of Pin::new_unchecked
,
the pointee cannot move after Pin<Pointer<T>>
got created.
“Malicious” implementations of Pointer::Deref
are likewise
ruled out by the contract of Pin::new_unchecked
.
1.39.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub unsafe fn into_inner_unchecked(pin: Pin<Ptr>) -> Ptr
pub unsafe fn into_inner_unchecked(pin: Pin<Ptr>) -> Ptr
Unwraps this Pin<Ptr>
, returning the underlying Ptr
.
§Safety
This function is unsafe. You must guarantee that you will continue to
treat the pointer Ptr
as pinned after you call this function, so that
the invariants on the Pin
type can be upheld. If the code using the
resulting Ptr
does not continue to maintain the pinning invariants that
is a violation of the API contract and may lead to undefined behavior in
later (safe) operations.
Note that you must be able to guarantee that the data pointed to by Ptr
will be treated as pinned all the way until its drop
handler is complete!
For more information, see the pin
module docs
If the underlying data is Unpin
, Pin::into_inner
should be used
instead.
source§impl<Ptr> Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: DerefMut,
impl<Ptr> Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: DerefMut,
1.33.0 · sourcepub fn as_mut(&mut self) -> Pin<&mut <Ptr as Deref>::Target>
pub fn as_mut(&mut self) -> Pin<&mut <Ptr as Deref>::Target>
Gets a mutable reference to the pinned value this Pin<Ptr>
points to.
This is a generic method to go from &mut Pin<Pointer<T>>
to Pin<&mut T>
.
It is safe because, as part of the contract of Pin::new_unchecked
,
the pointee cannot move after Pin<Pointer<T>>
got created.
“Malicious” implementations of Pointer::DerefMut
are likewise
ruled out by the contract of Pin::new_unchecked
.
This method is useful when doing multiple calls to functions that consume the pinning pointer.
§Example
use std::pin::Pin;
impl Type {
fn method(self: Pin<&mut Self>) {
// do something
}
fn call_method_twice(mut self: Pin<&mut Self>) {
// `method` consumes `self`, so reborrow the `Pin<&mut Self>` via `as_mut`.
self.as_mut().method();
self.as_mut().method();
}
}
1.33.0 · sourcepub fn set(&mut self, value: <Ptr as Deref>::Target)
pub fn set(&mut self, value: <Ptr as Deref>::Target)
Assigns a new value to the memory location pointed to by the Pin<Ptr>
.
This overwrites pinned data, but that is okay: the original pinned value’s destructor gets
run before being overwritten and the new value is also a valid value of the same type, so
no pinning invariant is violated. See the pin
module documentation
for more information on how this upholds the pinning invariants.
§Example
use std::pin::Pin;
let mut val: u8 = 5;
let mut pinned: Pin<&mut u8> = Pin::new(&mut val);
println!("{}", pinned); // 5
pinned.set(10);
println!("{}", pinned); // 10
source§impl<'a, T> Pin<&'a T>where
T: ?Sized,
impl<'a, T> Pin<&'a T>where
T: ?Sized,
1.33.0 · sourcepub unsafe fn map_unchecked<U, F>(self, func: F) -> Pin<&'a U>
pub unsafe fn map_unchecked<U, F>(self, func: F) -> Pin<&'a U>
Constructs a new pin by mapping the interior value.
For example, if you wanted to get a Pin
of a field of something,
you could use this to get access to that field in one line of code.
However, there are several gotchas with these “pinning projections”;
see the pin
module documentation for further details on that topic.
§Safety
This function is unsafe. You must guarantee that the data you return will not move so long as the argument value does not move (for example, because it is one of the fields of that value), and also that you do not move out of the argument you receive to the interior function.
1.33.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub fn get_ref(self) -> &'a T
pub fn get_ref(self) -> &'a T
Gets a shared reference out of a pin.
This is safe because it is not possible to move out of a shared reference.
It may seem like there is an issue here with interior mutability: in fact,
it is possible to move a T
out of a &RefCell<T>
. However, this is
not a problem as long as there does not also exist a Pin<&T>
pointing
to the inner T
inside the RefCell
, and RefCell<T>
does not let you get a
Pin<&T>
pointer to its contents. See the discussion on “pinning projections”
for further details.
Note: Pin
also implements Deref
to the target, which can be used
to access the inner value. However, Deref
only provides a reference
that lives for as long as the borrow of the Pin
, not the lifetime of
the reference contained in the Pin
. This method allows turning the Pin
into a reference
with the same lifetime as the reference it wraps.
source§impl<'a, T> Pin<&'a mut T>where
T: ?Sized,
impl<'a, T> Pin<&'a mut T>where
T: ?Sized,
1.33.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub fn into_ref(self) -> Pin<&'a T>
pub fn into_ref(self) -> Pin<&'a T>
Converts this Pin<&mut T>
into a Pin<&T>
with the same lifetime.
1.33.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub fn get_mut(self) -> &'a mut Twhere
T: Unpin,
pub fn get_mut(self) -> &'a mut Twhere
T: Unpin,
Gets a mutable reference to the data inside of this Pin
.
This requires that the data inside this Pin
is Unpin
.
Note: Pin
also implements DerefMut
to the data, which can be used
to access the inner value. However, DerefMut
only provides a reference
that lives for as long as the borrow of the Pin
, not the lifetime of
the Pin
itself. This method allows turning the Pin
into a reference
with the same lifetime as the original Pin
.
1.33.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub unsafe fn get_unchecked_mut(self) -> &'a mut T
pub unsafe fn get_unchecked_mut(self) -> &'a mut T
Gets a mutable reference to the data inside of this Pin
.
§Safety
This function is unsafe. You must guarantee that you will never move
the data out of the mutable reference you receive when you call this
function, so that the invariants on the Pin
type can be upheld.
If the underlying data is Unpin
, Pin::get_mut
should be used
instead.
1.33.0 · sourcepub unsafe fn map_unchecked_mut<U, F>(self, func: F) -> Pin<&'a mut U>
pub unsafe fn map_unchecked_mut<U, F>(self, func: F) -> Pin<&'a mut U>
Construct a new pin by mapping the interior value.
For example, if you wanted to get a Pin
of a field of something,
you could use this to get access to that field in one line of code.
However, there are several gotchas with these “pinning projections”;
see the pin
module documentation for further details on that topic.
§Safety
This function is unsafe. You must guarantee that the data you return will not move so long as the argument value does not move (for example, because it is one of the fields of that value), and also that you do not move out of the argument you receive to the interior function.
source§impl<T> Pin<&'static T>where
T: ?Sized,
impl<T> Pin<&'static T>where
T: ?Sized,
1.61.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub fn static_ref(r: &'static T) -> Pin<&'static T>
pub fn static_ref(r: &'static T) -> Pin<&'static T>
Get a pinning reference from a &'static
reference.
This is safe because T
is borrowed immutably for the 'static
lifetime, which
never ends.
source§impl<'a, Ptr> Pin<&'a mut Pin<Ptr>>where
Ptr: DerefMut,
impl<'a, Ptr> Pin<&'a mut Pin<Ptr>>where
Ptr: DerefMut,
sourcepub fn as_deref_mut(self) -> Pin<&'a mut <Ptr as Deref>::Target>
🔬This is a nightly-only experimental API. (pin_deref_mut
#86918)
pub fn as_deref_mut(self) -> Pin<&'a mut <Ptr as Deref>::Target>
pin_deref_mut
#86918)Gets Pin<&mut T>
to the underlying pinned value from this nested Pin
-pointer.
This is a generic method to go from Pin<&mut Pin<Pointer<T>>>
to Pin<&mut T>
. It is
safe because the existence of a Pin<Pointer<T>>
ensures that the pointee, T
, cannot
move in the future, and this method does not enable the pointee to move. “Malicious”
implementations of Ptr::DerefMut
are likewise ruled out by the contract of
Pin::new_unchecked
.
source§impl<T> Pin<&'static mut T>where
T: ?Sized,
impl<T> Pin<&'static mut T>where
T: ?Sized,
1.61.0 (const: unstable) · sourcepub fn static_mut(r: &'static mut T) -> Pin<&'static mut T>
pub fn static_mut(r: &'static mut T) -> Pin<&'static mut T>
Get a pinning mutable reference from a static mutable reference.
This is safe because T
is borrowed for the 'static
lifetime, which
never ends.
Trait Implementations§
source§impl<P> AsyncIterator for Pin<P>
impl<P> AsyncIterator for Pin<P>
§type Item = <<P as Deref>::Target as AsyncIterator>::Item
type Item = <<P as Deref>::Target as AsyncIterator>::Item
async_iterator
#79024)source§fn poll_next(
self: Pin<&mut Pin<P>>,
cx: &mut Context<'_>,
) -> Poll<Option<<Pin<P> as AsyncIterator>::Item>>
fn poll_next( self: Pin<&mut Pin<P>>, cx: &mut Context<'_>, ) -> Poll<Option<<Pin<P> as AsyncIterator>::Item>>
async_iterator
#79024)None
if the async iterator is exhausted. Read moresource§impl<G, R> Coroutine<R> for Pin<&mut G>
impl<G, R> Coroutine<R> for Pin<&mut G>
§type Yield = <G as Coroutine<R>>::Yield
type Yield = <G as Coroutine<R>>::Yield
coroutine_trait
#43122)source§impl<G, R, A> Coroutine<R> for Pin<Box<G, A>>
impl<G, R, A> Coroutine<R> for Pin<Box<G, A>>
§type Yield = <G as Coroutine<R>>::Yield
type Yield = <G as Coroutine<R>>::Yield
coroutine_trait
#43122)1.33.0 · source§impl<T, A> From<Box<T, A>> for Pin<Box<T, A>>
impl<T, A> From<Box<T, A>> for Pin<Box<T, A>>
source§fn from(boxed: Box<T, A>) -> Pin<Box<T, A>>
fn from(boxed: Box<T, A>) -> Pin<Box<T, A>>
Converts a Box<T>
into a Pin<Box<T>>
. If T
does not implement Unpin
, then
*boxed
will be pinned in memory and unable to be moved.
This conversion does not allocate on the heap and happens in place.
This is also available via Box::into_pin
.
Constructing and pinning a Box
with <Pin<Box<T>>>::from(Box::new(x))
can also be written more concisely using Box::pin(x)
.
This From
implementation is useful if you already have a Box<T>
, or you are
constructing a (pinned) Box
in a different way than with Box::new
.
1.41.0 · source§impl<Ptr> Ord for Pin<Ptr>
impl<Ptr> Ord for Pin<Ptr>
1.41.0 · source§impl<Ptr, Q> PartialOrd<Pin<Q>> for Pin<Ptr>
impl<Ptr, Q> PartialOrd<Pin<Q>> for Pin<Ptr>
impl<Ptr, U> CoerceUnsized<Pin<U>> for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: CoerceUnsized<U>,
impl<Ptr> Copy for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: Copy,
impl<Ptr> DerefPure for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: DerefPure,
impl<Ptr, U> DispatchFromDyn<Pin<U>> for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: DispatchFromDyn<U>,
impl<Ptr> Eq for Pin<Ptr>
Auto Trait Implementations§
impl<Ptr> Freeze for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: Freeze,
impl<Ptr> RefUnwindSafe for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: RefUnwindSafe,
impl<Ptr> Send for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: Send,
impl<Ptr> Sync for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: Sync,
impl<Ptr> Unpin for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: Unpin,
impl<Ptr> UnwindSafe for Pin<Ptr>where
Ptr: UnwindSafe,
Blanket Implementations§
source§impl<T> BorrowMut<T> for Twhere
T: ?Sized,
impl<T> BorrowMut<T> for Twhere
T: ?Sized,
source§fn borrow_mut(&mut self) -> &mut T
fn borrow_mut(&mut self) -> &mut T
source§impl<I> IntoAsyncIterator for Iwhere
I: AsyncIterator,
impl<I> IntoAsyncIterator for Iwhere
I: AsyncIterator,
§type Item = <I as AsyncIterator>::Item
type Item = <I as AsyncIterator>::Item
async_iterator
#79024)§type IntoAsyncIter = I
type IntoAsyncIter = I
async_iterator
#79024)source§fn into_async_iter(self) -> <I as IntoAsyncIterator>::IntoAsyncIter
fn into_async_iter(self) -> <I as IntoAsyncIterator>::IntoAsyncIter
async_iterator
#79024)self
into an async iterator