Lifetime issue with Actix Web

Question

I'm implementing middleware with Actix-web and having an issue with lifetime that I couldn't figure out.

extern crate actix_web;

use actix_web::actix::{Actor, Addr, Context, System};
use actix_web::middleware::Middleware;
use actix_web::{http, server, App, HttpRequest, Responder};
use std::collections::HashMap;

pub struct CacheActor {
    caches: HashMap<String, String>,
}

impl CacheActor {
    pub fn new() -> Self {
        CacheActor {
            caches: HashMap::new(),
        }
    }
}

impl Actor for CacheActor {
    type Context = Context<Self>;
}

fn create_resource(req: HttpRequest, addr: &Addr<CacheActor>) -> impl Responder {
    unimplemented!();
    format!("Unimplemented")
}

fn list_resources(req: HttpRequest, addr: &Addr<CacheActor>) -> impl Responder {
    unimplemented!();
    format!("Unimplemented")
}

pub trait TusMiddlewareTrait {
    fn with_tus(self, addr: &Addr<CacheActor>) -> App;
}

impl TusMiddlewareTrait for App {
    fn with_tus(self, addr: &Addr<CacheActor>) -> App {
        self.route("/files", http::Method::GET, |req| list_resources(req, addr))
            .route("/files", http::Method::POST, |req| {
                create_resource(req, addr)
            })
    }
}

fn main() {
    let system = System::new("Example");
    let cache_addr = CacheActor::new().start();

    server::new(|| App::new().with_tus(&cache_addr))
        .bind("127.0.0.1:8080")
        .unwrap()
        .run();

    system.run();
}

The error that I get is the following,

error[E0495]: cannot infer an appropriate lifetime due to conflicting requirements
  --> src/tus/middleware.rs:84:49
   |
84 |             .route("/files", http::Method::GET, |req| list_resources(req, addr))
   |                                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   |
note: first, the lifetime cannot outlive the anonymous lifetime #1 defined on the method body at 81:5...
  --> src/tus/middleware.rs:81:5
   |
81 | /     fn with_tus(self, addr: &actix::Addr<cache::CacheActor>) -> App {
82 | |         self.middleware(TusMiddleware)
83 | |             .route("/files", http::Method::OPTIONS, tus_information)
84 | |             .route("/files", http::Method::GET, |req| list_resources(req, addr))
...  |
87 | |             })
88 | |     }
   | |_____^
   = note: ...so that the types are compatible:
           expected &&actix::address::Addr<tus::cache::CacheActor>
              found &&actix::address::Addr<tus::cache::CacheActor>
   = note: but, the lifetime must be valid for the static lifetime...

As for what I understand, I am passing cache_addr as a reference to with_tus function. Inside each closure in route, addr is also a reference.

I don't understand why the compiler said the lifetime cannot outlive the anonymous lifetime #1. From what I can tell is that cache_addr's lifetime still outlives the closure. The lifetime should cover up until system.run() line. Can someone enlighten me?

Edit:

I updated the code above to MCVE (at least to a point that it is simple enough to copy the whole code and run cargo build while still preserving the same error message). I can't run it on rust-playground. It doesn't support actix crate at this point. I tried reducing it further but it's giving me a different error. Sorry, I am pretty new to Rust.

My questions are twofold, one I like to understand what's the error telling me. Second, I like to know how to properly do this with actix thus why the sample code is dependent on actix.

Answer 1

Look at the App::route signature:

pub fn route<T, F, R>(self, path: &str, method: Method, f: F) -> App<S> 
where
    F: WithFactory<T, S, R>,
    R: Responder + 'static,
    T: FromRequest<S> + 'static,

F generic depends on T and R that in turn have 'static lifetime requirement.

Your closure captures an &Addr<CacheActor> that it is not valid for 'static lifetime and this generates the error.

A possibility that I see is to use the App "State", directly from the docs:

Application state is shared with all routes and resources within the same application. When using an http actor, state can be accessed with the HttpRequest::state() as read-only, but interior mutability with RefCell can be used to achieve state mutability. State is also available for route matching predicates and middlewares.

In this case should be something like:

extern crate actix_web;

use actix_web::actix::{Actor, Addr, Context, System};
use actix_web::{http, server, App, HttpRequest, HttpResponse, Result};
use std::collections::HashMap;
use actix_web::dev::Handler;

#[derive(Clone)]
pub struct CacheActor {
    caches: HashMap<String, String>,
}

impl CacheActor {
    pub fn new() -> Self {
        CacheActor {
            caches: HashMap::new(),
        }
    }
}

impl Actor for CacheActor {
    type Context = Context<Self>;
}

impl<S> Handler<S> for CacheActor {
    type Result = String;

    fn handle(&self, _req: &HttpRequest<S>) -> Self::Result {
        unimplemented!();
    }
}

fn list_resources(req: &HttpRequest<Addr<CacheActor>>) -> Result<HttpResponse> {
    Ok(HttpResponse::Found()
        .header(http::header::LOCATION, format!("hello {}", req.path()))
        .finish())
}

fn main() {
    let system = System::new("Example");

    server::new(|| {
        let cache_addr = CacheActor::new().start();
        App::with_state(cache_addr)
            .resource("/world", |r| r.method(http::Method::GET).f(list_resources))
    })
    .bind("127.0.0.1:8080")
    .unwrap()
    .run();

    system.run();
}