The Memory Model: Copy, Borrow, Ref

When does ast2ast duplicate your data, and when do writes inside a function stay visible to the caller? It depends on which boundary the argument crosses – and the same keyword can mean different things on each.

Base R never faces this question: vectors and lists are copy-on-modify, so a change a function makes to its argument never escapes. The one keyword that changes that – ref – has no counterpart in ordinary R, so it is worth being precise about where it applies.

Boundary 1 – R calls the translated function

The argument arrives as a SEXP (an ordinary R object) and is turned into an etr vector before the body runs.

default

Copied. The SEXP contents land in f’s own vector at a new address. Your R vector is unchanged after the call.

borrow_vec(double)

Shared. f’s vector points straight into R’s SEXP buffer – same address, no copy. Without const(), a write here reaches the caller’s storage.

scale_inplace <- function(v, k) {
  argtypes(
    v |> type(borrow_vec(double)),
    k |> type(double)
  )
  for (i in seq_len(length(v))) {
    v[[i]] <- v[[i]] * k
  }
  return(v)
}
f <- ast2ast::translate(scale_inplace)

x <- c(1, 2, 3)
f(x, 10)
x   # c(10, 20, 30): x itself was modified, because f borrowed its buffer

Drop the borrow_vec – plain v |> type(vec(double)) – and x stays c(1, 2, 3): the function worked on a copy.

Boundary 2 – inside f, calling an inner fn()

The argument is already an etr object, not a SEXP – so ref() works here whatever output you translate to. In this sense inner fn() arguments behave like XPtr arguments.

default

Copied. The inner function g gets its own copy of the etr object. Whatever g writes stays in g.

y |> type(vec(double)) |> ref()

Shared. g works on the caller’s object itself. After g returns, the changes are still there – the one place ast2ast behaves unlike base R.

demo <- function(v) {
  argtypes(v |> type(vec(double)))

  double_it <- fn(
    argtypes(out |> type(vec(double)) |> ref()),
    return(void),
    {
      for (i in seq_len(length(out))) {
        out[[i]] <- out[[i]] * 2
      }
    }
  )

  double_it(v)   # v is filled in place -- no copy, no allocation
  return(v)
}
f <- ast2ast::translate(demo)
f(c(1, 2, 3))    # c(2, 4, 6)

Without |> ref() on out, double_it would double a private copy and v would come back unchanged. This is the mechanism behind the “preallocate a buffer once, let an inner function fill it every iteration” pattern – it removes a per-call allocation from hot loops.

noteref() on an argument of the outer function is ignored, with a warning. Converting R’s SEXP into an etr object has already happened, so there is no shared handle left to pass by reference. Use borrow_vec() / borrow_mat() to skip the copy at that boundary.

In one table

Keyword	Boundary	Copies the data	Writes visible to caller
(default)	R → translated f	yes	no
borrow_vec() / borrow_mat()	R → translated f	no	yes †
(default)	f → inner fn()	yes	no
\|> ref()	f → inner fn()	no	yes
\|> ref()	R → translated f	-- ignored, warning --

† unless the argument is also marked const().

The short version

borrow = don’t copy the data. ref = don’t copy the object.

The observable rule, without pointers or SEXP in it: a copied argument’s changes stop at the function; a shared argument’s changes are still there after it returns. The addresses in the figures are shortened from a real run of vec <- c(9, 5, 6) – 0x...d2b0 is its storage, 0x...22b0 a fresh allocation.