In a comment on my answer to a StackOverflow question about callbacks in Rust, the commenter asked why it is necessary to specify 'static lifetime when boxing closures. The code in the answer looks similar to this:

struct Processor {
    callback: Box<dyn Fn()>,
}

impl Processor {
    fn new() -> Processor {
        Processor { callback: Box::new(|| ()) }
    }
    fn set_callback<CB: 'static + Fn()>(&mut self, c: CB) {
        self.callback = Box::new(c);
    }
    fn invoke(&self) {
        (self.callback)();
    }
}

It seems redundant to specify the lifetime of a boxed object that we already own. In other places when we create a Box<T>, we don’t need to add 'static to T’s trait bounds. But without the 'static bound the code fails to compile, complaining that “the parameter type CB may not live long enough.” This is a strange error – normally the borrow checker complains of an object not living long enough, but here it specifically refers to the type.

Let’s say Processor::set_callback compiled without the lifetime trait on Fn(). In that case the following usage would be legal as well:

fn crash_rust() {
    let mut p = Processor::new();
    {
        let s = "hi".to_string();
        p.set_callback(|| println!("{}", s.len()));
    }
    // access to destroyed "s"!
    p.invoke();
}

When analyzing set_callback, Rust notices that the returned box could easily outlive the data referenced by the CB closure and requires a harder lifetime bound, even helpfully suggesting 'static as a safe choice. If we add 'static to the bound of CB, set_callback compiles, but crash_rust predictably doesn’t. In case the desire was not to actually crash Rust, it is easy to fix the closure simply by adding move in front of it closure, as is is again helpfully suggested by the compiler. Moving s into the closure makes the closure own it, and it will not be destroyed for as long as the closure is kept alive.

This also explains the error message – it is not c that may not live long enough, it is the references captured by the arbitrary CB closure type. The 'static bound ensures the closure is only allowed to refer to static data which by definition outlives everything. The downside is that it becomes impossible for the closure to refer to any non-static data, even one that outlives Processor. Fixing the closure by moving all captured values inside it is not always possible, sometimes we want the closure to capture by reference because we also need the value elsewhere. For example, we would like the following to compile:

// safe but currently disallowed
{
    let s = "hi".to_string();
    let mut p = Processor::new();
    p.set_callback(|| println!("later {}", s.len()));
    println!("sooner: {}", s.len());
    // safe - "s" lives longer than "p"
    p.invoke();
}

Rust makes it possible to pin the lifetime to one of a specific object. Using this definition of Processor:

struct Processor<'a> {
    // the boxed closure is free to reference any data that
    // doesn't outlive this Processor instance
    callback: Box<dyn 'a + Fn()>,
}

impl<'a> Processor<'a> {
    fn new() -> Processor<'a> {
        Processor { callback: Box::new(|| ()) }
    }
    fn set_callback<CB: 'a + Fn()>(&mut self, c: CB) {
        self.callback = Box::new(c);
    }
    fn invoke(&self) {
        (self.callback)();
    }
}

…allows the safe code to compile, while still disallowing crash_rust.