This function avoids subtle faults found in many ad-hoc implementations,
and is simple enough to be inlined by the compiler.

Fixes #20100

Change-Id: Ib320254e9b1f1f798c6ef906b116f63bc29e8d08
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/43652Reviewed-by: Robert Griesemer <gri@golang.org>