Merge pull request rust-lang#1186 from RalfJung/size-of-val

clarify that references size_of_val can never exceed isize::MAX

Author: ehuss

src/behavior-considered-undefined.md

@@ -76,13 +76,18 @@ reading uninitialized memory is permitted are inside `union`s and in "padding"
 [dangling]: #dangling-pointers
 
 A reference/pointer is "dangling" if it is null or not all of the bytes it
-points to are part of the same allocation (so in particular they all have to be
+points to are part of the same live allocation (so in particular they all have to be
 part of *some* allocation). The span of bytes it points to is determined by the
-pointer value and the size of the pointee type (using `size_of_val`). As a
-consequence, if the span is empty, "dangling" is the same as "non-null". Note
-that slices and strings point to their entire range, so it is important that the length
-metadata is never too large. In particular, allocations and therefore slices and strings
-cannot be bigger than `isize::MAX` bytes.
+pointer value and the size of the pointee type (using `size_of_val`).
+
+If the size is 0, then the pointer must either point inside of a live allocation
+(including pointing just after the last byte of the allocation), or it must be
+directly constructed from a non-zero integer literal.
+
+Note that dynamically sized types (such as slices and strings) point to their
+entire range, so it is important that the length metadata is never too large. In
+particular, the dynamic size of a Rust value (as determined by `size_of_val`)
+must never exceed `isize::MAX`.
 
 [`bool`]: types/boolean.md
 [`const`]: items/constant-items.md