LuaLS / LuaLS/lua-language-server

Detect functions that never return (and @noreturn annotation)

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#1,881 4 comments 5 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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enhancement
Dominant language
Lua
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4.4k
Forks
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Description

Some functions, such as `error`, never return control to the caller. This can be used to prove that a value is not nil, for example:

```lua
function my_function(input)
local value = input.value or error('Missing value')
-- The following line would currently raise a "Needs nil check" warning
-- However, if it was nil at runtime, an error would have been raised and it would never get this far.
return value:sub(1, 3)
end
```

It's not just `error` that can cause this, however. A custom function could be written that never returns as well (the most obvious way is that the function unconditionally calls `error`, but there may be other ways involving coroutines or functions implemented in C). A `@noreturn` annotation could be used to indicate this, similar to `@nodiscard`.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No file or test is named in the issue. Start by tracing the nil-check warning and the existing @nodiscard annotation handling, then determine how non-returning built-ins, custom functions, and @noreturn should be represented; done means the example no longer warns and the annotation behavior is covered.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
lua
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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