Async Programming in Rust: A Primer

Rust’s approach to asynchronous programming is unique. It provides zero-cost abstractions, meaning you don’t pay a runtime penalty for using async features unless you use them.

The Future Trait

At the heart of Rust’s async model is the Future trait. A future represents a value that might not be available yet.

trait Future {
    type Output;
    fn poll(self: Pin<&mut Self>, cx: &mut Context<'_>) -> Poll<Self::Output>;
}

Tokio Runtime

Rust doesn’t have a built-in runtime. Libraries like Tokio provide the necessary components (executor, reactor) to run async code.

Conclusion

Mastering async Rust allows you to build incredibly performant network services that can handle thousands of concurrent connections with a small memory footprint.