rust-lang / rust-lang/rust

"Reference to data owned by current function" for a function owning no data.

Open
#130,584 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

A-borrow-checker A-diagnostics D-confusing T-compiler
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
119k
Forks
16.1k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

Code
fn f(a: &mut Vec<u64>) -> &[u64] {
    let v = a;
    v.push(1);
    &v
}
Current output
error[E0515]: cannot return reference to local variable `v`
 --> src/main.rs:4:5
  |
4 |     &v
  |     ^^ returns a reference to data owned by the current function
Desired output
Type error: expected `&[u64]`, found `& &mut Vec<u64>`.
Suggestion: change `&v` to `v`.
Rationale and extra context

It seems like the autoderef is making the borrowck confused here, or something? I had trouble interpreting the message because the function owns no data (only copy-able refs).

@Kyuuhachi I don't know the exact details, but derefing a &'local &'self mut [u64] gives a &'local [u64], not a &'self [u64] [1]

@Kyuuhachi Kind of a weird edge case here I think, because if instead chose to first relax the mutref into a &'local &'self [u64] it would be able to get a &'self [u64] from that [2]

Not sure how to help more?

Other cases

Changing &v to v makes it compile without error.

Rust Version
$ rustc --version --verbose                                                                                                                                                                          
rustc 1.83.0-nightly (f79a912d9 2024-09-18)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: f79a912d9edc3ad4db910c0e93672ed5c65133fa
commit-date: 2024-09-18
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
release: 1.83.0-nightly
LLVM version: 19.1.0
Anything else?

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

Reproduce the diagnostic from the issue's src/main.rs example with the noted rustc nightly version. Start by tracing how rustc reports the return of &v after autoderef, then compare it with the requested type error and suggestion. Done means the example reports the requested explanation without regressing the compiling v variant.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.