rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-clippy

Regression in `ptr_arg`

Open
#9,676 6 comments 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

C-bug
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
13.5k
Forks
2.2k
Avg merge
2d 10h
Merged PRs (30d)
32

Description

Summary

Clippy had displayed ptr_arg warnings before Rust version 1.60

➜  expr git:(master) ✗ cargo +1.59 clippy 
    Checking expr v0.1.0 (/home/maksim/dev/my/expr)
warning: writing `&String` instead of `&str` involves a new object where a slice will do
 --> src/lib.rs:1:15
  |
1 | pub fn foo(_: &String) {}
  |               ^^^^^^^ help: change this to: `&str`
  |
  = note: `#[warn(clippy::ptr_arg)]` on by default
  = help: for further information visit https://rust-lang.github.io/rust-clippy/master/index.html#ptr_arg

warning: writing `&Vec<_>` instead of `&[_]` involves one more reference and cannot be used with non-Vec-based slices
 --> src/lib.rs:2:15
  |
2 | pub fn bar(_: &Vec<u8>) {}
  |               ^^^^^^^^ help: change this to: `&[u8]`
  |
  = help: for further information visit https://rust-lang.github.io/rust-clippy/master/index.html#ptr_arg

warning: `expr` (lib) generated 2 warnings
    Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.14s
➜  expr git:(master) ✗ cargo +1.60 clippy 
    Checking expr v0.1.0 (/home/maksim/dev/my/expr)
    Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.14s
Reproducer

I tried this code:

fn foo(_: &String) {}
fn bar(_: &Vec<u8>) {}

I expected to see this happen:

warning: writing `&String` instead of `&str` involves a new object where a slice will do
 --> src/lib.rs:1:15
  |
1 | pub fn foo(_: &String) {}
  |               ^^^^^^^ help: change this to: `&str`
  |
  = note: `#[warn(clippy::ptr_arg)]` on by default
  = help: for further information visit https://rust-lang.github.io/rust-clippy/master/index.html#ptr_arg

warning: writing `&Vec<_>` instead of `&[_]` involves one more reference and cannot be used with non-Vec-based slices
 --> src/lib.rs:2:15
  |
2 | pub fn bar(_: &Vec<u8>) {}
  |               ^^^^^^^^ help: change this to: `&[u8]`
  |
  = help: for further information visit https://rust-lang.github.io/rust-clippy/master/index.html#ptr_arg

Instead, this happened:

No warning

Version
Working:
rustc 1.59.0 (9d1b2106e 2022-02-23)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: 9d1b2106e23b1abd32fce1f17267604a5102f57a
commit-date: 2022-02-23
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
release: 1.59.0
LLVM version: 13.0.0

Not working:
rustc 1.60.0 (7737e0b5c 2022-04-04)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: 7737e0b5c4103216d6fd8cf941b7ab9bdbaace7c
commit-date: 2022-04-04
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
release: 1.60.0
LLVM version: 14.0.0
Additional Labels

No response

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 with the src/lib.rs reproducer and compare cargo +1.59 clippy with cargo +1.60 clippy, then trace the ptr_arg lint entry point. Add regression coverage for both &String and &Vec, and verify that the expected warnings return without breaking the existing lint tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
48/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.