optionally return string_view from coerceToString

we'll retain the old coerceToString interface that returns a string, but callers
that don't need the returned value to outlive the Value it came from can save
copies by using the new interface instead. for values that weren't stringy we'll
pass a new buffer argument that'll be used for storage and shouldn't be
inspected.

src/libutil/types.hh

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 #include <set>
 #include <string>
 #include <map>
+#include <variant>
 #include <vector>
 
 namespace nix {
@@ -47,4 +48,63 @@ struct Explicit {
     }
 };
 
+
+/* This wants to be a little bit like rust's Cow type.
+   Some parts of the evaluator benefit greatly from being able to reuse
+   existing allocations for strings, but have to be able to also use
+   newly allocated storage for values.
+
+   We do not define implicit conversions, even with ref qualifiers,
+   since those can easily become ambiguous to the reader and can degrade
+   into copying behaviour we want to avoid. */
+class BackedStringView {
+private:
+    std::variant<std::string, std::string_view> data;
+
+    /* Needed to introduce a temporary since operator-> must return
+       a pointer. Without this we'd need to store the view object
+       even when we already own a string. */
+    class Ptr {
+    private:
+        std::string_view view;
+    public:
+        Ptr(std::string_view view): view(view) {}
+        const std::string_view * operator->() const { return &view; }
+    };
+
+public:
+    BackedStringView(std::string && s): data(std::move(s)) {}
+    BackedStringView(std::string_view sv): data(sv) {}
+    template<size_t N>
+    BackedStringView(const char (& lit)[N]): data(std::string_view(lit)) {}
+
+    BackedStringView(const BackedStringView &) = delete;
+    BackedStringView & operator=(const BackedStringView &) = delete;
+
+    /* We only want move operations defined since the sole purpose of
+       this type is to avoid copies. */
+    BackedStringView(BackedStringView && other) = default;
+    BackedStringView & operator=(BackedStringView && other) = default;
+
+    bool isOwned() const
+    {
+        return std::holds_alternative<std::string>(data);
+    }
+
+    std::string toOwned() &&
+    {
+        return isOwned()
+            ? std::move(std::get<std::string>(data))
+            : std::string(std::get<std::string_view>(data));
+    }
+
+    std::string_view operator*() const
+    {
+        return isOwned()
+            ? std::get<std::string>(data)
+            : std::get<std::string_view>(data);
+    }
+    Ptr operator->() const { return Ptr(**this); }
+};
+
 }