rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-clippy

Bypassing constructor with manual_non_exhaustive and update syntax

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C-bug I-false-positive
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

Summary

When using a private zero sized field it prevents the update syntax { ..x } from working, but the non_exhaustive attribute does not.

Lint Name

manual_non_exhaustive

Reproducer

I tried this code:

mod foo {
    #[non_exhaustive]
    pub struct Person {
        pub name: String,
        pub age: u8,
        // _private: (),
    }

    impl Person {
        pub fn new(age: u8, name: String) -> Person {
            assert!(age >= 18, "Can not create instance");
            Person {
                age,
                name,
                // _private: (),
            }
        }
    }
}

use foo::Person; // imagine foo is an external crate

fn main() {
    let p = Person::new(18, String::from("Peter"));
    let p2 = Person { age: 10, ..p };
}

p2 can be constructed, although the constructor forbids it by having an assert.
If we use the _private: () field, we get an error like this:

error[E0451]: field `_private` of struct `Person` is private
  --> src/main.rs:25:34
   |
25 |     let p2 = Person { age: 10, ..p };
   |                                  ^ field `_private` is private

So the question is, is this a case for #[allow(clippy::manual_non_exhaustive )] or should we check for possible side effects in the constructor? (please no! 🙈)

Version
rustc 1.76.0-nightly (a57770440 2023-11-16)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: a57770440f1ebe5b992551d3bcc489ae211908d4
commit-date: 2023-11-16
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
release: 1.76.0-nightly
LLVM version: 17.0.5
Additional Labels

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the Rust example in the issue and inspect the manual_non_exhaustive lint. Determine the intended behavior for struct update syntax with #[non_exhaustive], then add or update a regression test showing the agreed behavior. Done means the lint handles this case consistently without analyzing constructor side effects.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
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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