Replace casts of slices (unsized types) with slice::from_raw_parts[_mut]().

libcore/libstd is allowed to make assumptions avoid the validity about casts
that extern code in general cannot. In particular it isn't clear that casting
`[T]` to `[MaybeUninit<T>]` or vice-versa is guaranteed to be sound. Avoid the
issue by using an alternative to casts.

Author: briansmith

src/util.rs

@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
 #![allow(dead_code)]
-use core::{mem::MaybeUninit, ptr};
+use core::{mem::MaybeUninit, ptr, slice};
 
 /// Polyfill for `maybe_uninit_slice` feature's
 /// `MaybeUninit::slice_assume_init_mut`. Every element of `slice` must have
 /// been initialized.
 #[inline(always)]
 pub unsafe fn slice_assume_init_mut<T>(slice: &mut [MaybeUninit<T>]) -> &mut [T] {
     // SAFETY: `MaybeUninit<T>` is guaranteed to be layout-compatible with `T`.
-    &mut *(slice as *mut [MaybeUninit<T>] as *mut [T])
+    // The caller promises that every element of `slice` has been initialized.
+    slice::from_raw_parts_mut(slice.as_mut_ptr() as *mut T, slice.len())
 }
 
 #[inline]
@@ -21,7 +22,7 @@ pub fn slice_as_uninit<T>(slice: &[T]) -> &[MaybeUninit<T>] {
     // SAFETY: `MaybeUninit<T>` is guaranteed to be layout-compatible with `T`.
     // There is no risk of writing a `MaybeUninit<T>` into the result since
     // the result isn't mutable.
-    unsafe { &*(slice as *const [T] as *const [MaybeUninit<T>]) }
+    unsafe { slice::from_raw_parts(slice.as_ptr() as *const MaybeUninit<T>, slice.len()) }
 }
 
 /// View an mutable initialized array as potentially-uninitialized.
@@ -31,5 +32,5 @@ pub fn slice_as_uninit<T>(slice: &[T]) -> &[MaybeUninit<T>] {
 #[inline(always)]
 pub unsafe fn slice_as_uninit_mut<T>(slice: &mut [T]) -> &mut [MaybeUninit<T>] {
     // SAFETY: `MaybeUninit<T>` is guaranteed to be layout-compatible with `T`.
-    &mut *(slice as *mut [T] as *mut [MaybeUninit<T>])
+    slice::from_raw_parts_mut(slice.as_mut_ptr() as *mut MaybeUninit<T>, slice.len())
 }