rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-clippy

[feature request] Auto-fix for `extra_unused_lifetimes`

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#13,612 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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C-enhancement
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

Description

extra_unused_lifetimes doesn't have an auto-fix for the unused lifetimes it flags, but it'd be nice if it did.

fn unused_lt<'a>(x: u8) {}

could become

fn unused_lt<>(x: u8) {}

which I've seen my editor change to

fn unused_lt(x: u8) {}

on save.


I've thought about widening the range of the lint so it changes

fn unused_lt<'a>(x: u8) {}

to

fn unused_lt(x: u8) {}

but that could become messy in the case with

fn unused_lt<'a, 'b, 'c, 'd>(x: u8) {}

so I think it's fine to just have the auto-fix remove the unused lifetime and have a formatter remove any stray <>.

Edge Case

I've looked into this, and there's an edge case with

trait _Foo {
    fn hey();
}
impl<'a, T: ?Sized> _Foo for &mut T {
    fn hey() {}
}

since just removing 'a' results in

trait _Foo {
    fn hey();
}
impl<, T: ?Sized> _Foo for &mut T {
    fn hey() {}
}

and an error.

Version

rustc 1.81.0 (eeb90cda1 2024-09-04)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: eeb90cda1969383f56a2637cbd3037bdf598841c
commit-date: 2024-09-04
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
release: 1.81.0
LLVM version: 18.1.7

Additional Labels

@rustbot label +

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

Start by locating the extra_unused_lifetimes lint implementation and its existing autofix tests. Check the single- and multiple-lifetime examples, including the impl<'a, T: ?Sized> edge case, and consider the work complete when the autofix removes unused lifetimes without producing invalid syntax.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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