extracted doctests that have `include!` macros cannot be compiled outside of rustdoc
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- Dominant language
- Rust
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Description
Code
Consider the following code
/// ```rust
/// const MY_STRING: &str = include_str!("my_file.txt");
/// ```
fn f() {}
If you run rustdoc to extract the tests you get something like this
cargo build
RUSTC_BOOTSTRAP=1 rustdoc \
-Zunstable-options \
--crate-name=a \
--edition 2024 \
--output-format doctest \
--crate-type lib a/src/lib.rs \
--extern=a=target/debug/liba.rlib \
-Ltarget/debug \
-Ltarget/debug/deps
{
"format_version": 1,
"doctests": [
{
"file": "a/src/lib.rs",
"line": 1,
"doctest_attributes": {
"original": "rust",
"should_panic": false,
"no_run": false,
"ignore": "None",
"rust": true,
"test_harness": false,
"compile_fail": false,
"standalone_crate": false,
"error_codes": [],
"edition": null,
"added_css_classes": [],
"unknown": []
},
"original_code": "const MY_STRING: &str = include_str!(\"my_file.txt\");",
"doctest_code": "#![allow(unused)]\nfn main() {\nconst MY_STRING: &str = include_str!(\"my_file.txt\");\n}",
"name": "a/src/lib.rs - f (line 1)"
}
]
}
I observed the behaviour of the 2024 merged doc tests but it still seems that somehow rustdoc is using internal features to tell rustc where the src file is relative to so that include! and include_str! resolve.
Version
rustdoc 1.88.0 (6b00bc388 2025-06-23)
binary: rustdoc
commit-hash: 6b00bc3880198600130e1cf62b8f8a93494488cc
commit-date: 2025-06-23
host: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
release: 1.88.0
LLVM version: 20.1.5
Additional Details
Part of my working goal to get bazel project working without cargo.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the rustdoc command against a/src/lib.rs and inspect the extracted doctest JSON, especially doctest_code and its include_str! path. Trace the rustdoc doctest compilation entry point and compare it with the standalone extracted-test behavior; done means the reported include! and include_str! doctests compile outside rustdoc with the intended source-relative resolution.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- compilers, testing-qa, tooling
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100