rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-clippy

AsRef antipattern

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A-lint L-complexity
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

From: https://www.philipdaniels.com/blog/2019/rust-api-design/

AsRef is useful where you only need to borrow the input parameter. If you find yourself doing

let x = param.as_ref().to_owned();

You're doing it wrong. Use Into trait instead.

let x = param.into();

Example:

use std::path::Path;
use std::ffi::{OsString, OsStr};
pub fn foo() {
    let path = Path::new("/usr/bin");
    let _x = OsStr::to_owned(path.as_ref());
    // Should be rewritten as
    let _x: OsString = path.into();
}

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 reading the linked Rust API design article and the issue's AsRef and Into examples. Then locate the relevant Clippy lint entry points and tests for similar API-pattern lints. Done means identifying this antipattern reliably and covering the proposed rewrite behavior with tests.

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
35/100

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