rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-clippy

Check for invalid target_arch

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Rust
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Description

What it does

Checks if the value used with #[cfg(target_arch = "XXX")] is valid.

Categories (optional)
  • Kind: correctness

For example:

  • Detects dead code that almost certainly shouldn't be dead
Drawbacks

Might not be forwards-compatible with architectures added by future compilers. For example, if Rust 1.75.0 adds support for itanium and a crate cfg-gates on that, Clippy 1.74.0 would falsely warn about it.

Example

A real-world example from the Nix crate: https://github.com/nix-rust/nix/pull/1566

#[cfg(target_arch = "ppc")]
pub struct Foo{}

Should be written as:

#[cfg(any(target_arch = "powerpc", target_arch = "powerpc64"))]
pub struct Foo{}

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 source file or test is named in the issue. Start by locating existing Clippy lints that inspect cfg attributes and how target_arch values are represented; use the Nix example to understand the invalid case. Done means detecting invalid target_arch values while recognizing the valid architecture names and documenting or testing the forward-compatibility behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
compilers, devtools
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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