Maybeuninit

You reserve 4 KiB to read from a socket, and to hand the buffer over you first… write 4096 zeros. Vec::spare_capacity_mut exposes the reserved-but-uninitialized tail as &mut [MaybeUninit<u8>] so the callback writes straight into the allocation.

The pain: paying to overwrite

The intuitive fill-a-buffer pattern resizes the Vec first so the slice exists:

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let mut buf: Vec<u8> = Vec::with_capacity(8);
buf.resize(8, 0); // writes 8 zeros we're about to clobber

// Pretend this is `read(fd, buf.as_mut_ptr(), buf.len())`.
fill(&mut buf);

assert_eq!(buf, b"rustbite");

fn fill(out: &mut [u8]) {
    out.copy_from_slice(b"rustbite");
}

It works, but resize walks the whole tail writing zeros that the next line overwrites — a measurable cost for big reads, and pointless for types where “zero” isn’t even a valid value.

The fix: write into the uninitialized tail

Vec::spare_capacity_mut(&mut self) -> &mut [MaybeUninit<T>] hands you a slice covering exactly capacity - len slots. Write into them, then call set_len to tell the Vec they’re now initialized:

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use std::mem::MaybeUninit;

let mut buf: Vec<u8> = Vec::with_capacity(8);

// View the reserved-but-uninitialized tail.
let spare: &mut [MaybeUninit<u8>] = buf.spare_capacity_mut();
assert_eq!(spare.len(), 8);

// Write through the MaybeUninit pointer — no zeroing first.
for (slot, byte) in spare.iter_mut().zip(b"rustbite") {
    slot.write(*byte);
}

// Promise the Vec those 8 slots are now valid `u8`s.
unsafe { buf.set_len(8); }

assert_eq!(buf, b"rustbite");

spare_capacity_mut itself is safe — MaybeUninit<T> is the type that lets you hold “maybe garbage” without UB. The unsafe block is just the set_len call where you assert you really did initialize them.

Pairing with a real fill API

The standard pattern is “reserve, write, set_len”:

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use std::mem::MaybeUninit;

fn read_bytes(buf: &mut Vec<u8>, extra: usize, source: &[u8]) {
    buf.reserve(extra);

    let spare = buf.spare_capacity_mut();
    let n = extra.min(source.len()).min(spare.len());

    // Initialize the prefix we actually wrote.
    for i in 0..n {
        spare[i].write(source[i]);
    }

    // Only extend by what's been initialized.
    unsafe { buf.set_len(buf.len() + n); }
}

let mut v = vec![b'>', b' '];
read_bytes(&mut v, 8, b"rustbite");
assert_eq!(v, b"> rustbite");

The same shape works with read-style callbacks: cast the MaybeUninit<u8> slice to a raw pointer, hand it to C, and only extend len by the byte count the call returned. The bytes you didn’t write stay MaybeUninit — never read them.

When to reach for it

Reading from sockets, files, or FFI fill-style APIs into a Vec<u8> is the headline use case — every tokio and mio read path eventually bottoms out in this pattern. It’s also useful for non-Copy types where there’s no sensible default to seed with: image decoders writing Vec<Pixel>, audio decoders writing Vec<f32>, parser arenas writing Vec<Node>.

If you don’t need the spare capacity view — you’re building up element-by-element — Vec::push (or Vec::push_mut from bite 88) is still the right call. spare_capacity_mut is the tool for the moment you have an external writer that wants a flat buffer and you’d rather not pay to zero it first.

Ever tried to build a [T; N] element-by-element and ended up reaching for mem::transmute because [MaybeUninit<T>; N] refused to convert? Rust 1.95 stabilises safe conversions between [MaybeUninit<T>; N] and MaybeUninit<[T; N]> — no transmute, no tricks.

The old pain

You want a fully-initialised [T; N], but T isn’t Default (or the init is fallible, or expensive). The canonical pattern is:

1. Allocate [MaybeUninit<T>; N] uninitialised.
2. Fill each slot.
3. Get a [T; N] out the other end.

Step 3 is where it got ugly. MaybeUninit::assume_init only works on MaybeUninit<T>, not [MaybeUninit<T>; N]. To flip the array-of-uninits into uninit-of-array, you reached for mem::transmute — which works, but leans on layout assumptions and carries a big “here be dragons” vibe.

The fix: From conversions

Rust 1.95 stabilises both directions of the conversion, so no transmute is needed:

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use std::mem::MaybeUninit;

fn main() {
    let arr: [MaybeUninit<u32>; 4] = [
        MaybeUninit::new(1),
        MaybeUninit::new(2),
        MaybeUninit::new(3),
        MaybeUninit::new(4),
    ];

    // [MaybeUninit<T>; N] -> MaybeUninit<[T; N]>
    let packed: MaybeUninit<[u32; 4]> = MaybeUninit::from(arr);
    let init: [u32; 4] = unsafe { packed.assume_init() };

    assert_eq!(init, [1, 2, 3, 4]);
}

MaybeUninit::from takes the array-of-uninits and gives you an uninit-of-array ready to assume_init. Safe, obvious, no layout assumption on your part.

The reverse direction

You can also go the other way — from MaybeUninit<[T; N]> back to [MaybeUninit<T>; N] — useful when you want to touch elements individually:

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use std::mem::MaybeUninit;

fn main() {
    let packed: MaybeUninit<[u32; 3]> = MaybeUninit::new([10, 20, 30]);

    // MaybeUninit<[T; N]> -> [MaybeUninit<T>; N]
    let unpacked: [MaybeUninit<u32>; 3] = <[MaybeUninit<u32>; 3]>::from(packed);

    let values: [u32; 3] = unsafe {
        [
            unpacked[0].assume_init(),
            unpacked[1].assume_init(),
            unpacked[2].assume_init(),
        ]
    };
    assert_eq!(values, [10, 20, 30]);
}

Plus AsRef / AsMut for free

The same release adds AsRef<[MaybeUninit<T>; N]> and AsMut<[MaybeUninit<T>; N]> (plus slice versions) for MaybeUninit<[T; N]>. That means you can borrow the uninit array as a slice without any conversion ceremony:

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use std::mem::MaybeUninit;

fn fill_evens(buf: &mut [MaybeUninit<u32>]) {
    for (i, slot) in buf.iter_mut().enumerate() {
        slot.write(i as u32 * 2);
    }
}

fn main() {
    let mut packed: MaybeUninit<[u32; 4]> = MaybeUninit::uninit();

    // AsMut<[MaybeUninit<T>]> — borrow as a mutable slice of slots
    fill_evens(packed.as_mut());

    let init: [u32; 4] = unsafe { packed.assume_init() };
    assert_eq!(init, [0, 2, 4, 6]);
}

The helper writes through the AsMut slice view; the caller gets a fully-initialised [u32; 4] after assume_init. No transmute, no pointer casting.

When to reach for it

This is niche — you don’t need it until you’re writing generic collection code, FFI wrappers, or allocator-like APIs that build arrays without Default. But when you do, the new conversions delete an uncomfortable transmute from your codebase and make the intent explicit.

Stabilised in Rust 1.95 (April 2026).