rust-lang / rust-lang/rust

Unhelpful error message "ambiguous lifetime bound, explicit lifetime bound required"

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A-diagnostics A-dyn-trait A-lifetimes D-terse T-compiler
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

Code
trait MyTrait<'a, 'b> where Self: 'a + 'b {}

pub struct Foo<'a, 'b> {
    expr: Box<dyn MyTrait<'a, 'b>>,
}
// Fix:
pub struct Bar<'all, 'a, 'b> where 'all: 'a, 'all: 'b {
    expr: Box<dyn MyTrait<'a, 'b> + 'all>,
}
Current output
error[E0227]: ambiguous lifetime bound, explicit lifetime bound required
 --> src/lib.rs:4:15
  |
4 |     expr: Box<dyn MyTrait<'a, 'b>>,
  |               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For more information about this error, try rustc --explain E0227.

Desired output

No response

Rationale and extra context

No response

Other cases

No response

Rust Version
$ rustc -Vv
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
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

Start with the minimal Rust reproduction in the issue and inspect how rustc produces error E0227 for the trait-object lifetime bounds. The issue does not specify desired wording; done means replacing the current unhelpful diagnostic with a clearer explanation of the required explicit lifetime bound.

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
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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