rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-bindgen

Bindgen sometimes drops the type parameter of a struct for fields with multiple type parameters

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Rust
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Description

Header File

Here is an example header, though there are a lot of others which exhibit similar behavior (briefly mentioned in the discussion).

template <typename T, typename K = bool> struct Inner {
  T foo;
  K bar;
};

template <typename T> struct Outer {
  Inner<T> inner;
};

Expected Result

Something along the lines of:

/* automatically generated by rust-bindgen 0.71.1 */

#[repr(C)]
#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone)]
pub struct Inner<T, K = bool> {
    pub _phantom_0: ::std::marker::PhantomData<::std::cell::UnsafeCell<T>>,
    pub _phantom_1: ::std::marker::PhantomData<::std::cell::UnsafeCell<K>>,
    pub foo: T,
    pub bar: K,
}
#[repr(C)]
#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone)]
pub struct Outer<T> {
    pub _phantom_0: ::std::marker::PhantomData<::std::cell::UnsafeCell<T>>,
    pub inner: Inner<T>,
}

Actual Translation

When running bindgen lib.hpp -o bindings.rs (with lib.hpp containing the cpp code above), bindgen writes the following to bindings.rs:

/* automatically generated by rust-bindgen 0.71.1 */

#[repr(C)]
#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone)]
pub struct Inner<T, K> {
    pub _phantom_0: ::std::marker::PhantomData<::std::cell::UnsafeCell<T>>,
    pub _phantom_1: ::std::marker::PhantomData<::std::cell::UnsafeCell<K>>,
    pub foo: T,
    pub bar: K,
}
#[repr(C)]
#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone)]
pub struct Outer {
    pub inner: Inner<T, K>,
}

The log is attached here.

Discussion

The problem seems to be in the translating Outer's field. Removing the default type of K (the = bool) and instead instantiating it in the field as Inner<T, bool> inner exhibits the same problem.

Interestingly, changing the field to be Inner<T, T> inner lets the Rust generate fine, creating

// Definition of Inner omitted for brevity
#[repr(C)]
#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone)]
pub struct Outer<T> {
    pub _phantom_0: ::std::marker::PhantomData<::std::cell::UnsafeCell<T>>,
    pub inner: Inner<T, T>,
}

This leads me to believe the problem isn't to do with the default type parameter, but instead some more general problem when dealing with templates with multiple type parameters.

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

Reproduce the issue with the C++ declarations in lib.hpp and run bindgen lib.hpp -o bindings.rs. Compare the generated Outer and Inner definitions with the expected translation, then verify that fields using multiple template parameters preserve the correct parameters and defaults.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp, rust
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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