How does Rust manage memory safety without a garbage collector?

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How does Rust manage memory safety without a garbage collector?

Asked on Dec 06, 2025

Answer

Rust ensures memory safety without a garbage collector by using a system of ownership with rules that the compiler checks at compile time. This system prevents data races, dangling pointers, and memory leaks by enforcing strict borrowing and lifetime rules.

Example Concept: Rust's ownership model is based on three core principles: each value in Rust has a single owner, ownership can be transferred (moved), and values are automatically deallocated when their owner goes out of scope. Borrowing allows references to data without transferring ownership, and the borrow checker ensures that references do not outlive the data they point to, preventing use-after-free errors.

Additional Comment:

Rust's borrow checker enforces rules at compile time, eliminating runtime overhead.
Lifetimes in Rust ensure that references are valid for the duration of their use.
Rust's ownership model is integral to its concurrency safety, allowing safe data sharing across threads.
The absence of a garbage collector reduces runtime overhead, making Rust suitable for performance-critical applications.

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