rust-lang / rust-lang/rust

Rust fails to optimize const slice

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A-const-eval C-optimization T-opsem
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

I tried this code:

const fn test() -> &'static [&'static str] {
    const ITEMS: &[&str] = const {
        std::slice::from_ref(&[
            "hello",
            "world",
        ][0])
    };

    ITEMS
}

#[inline(never)]
pub fn main() {
    std::hint::black_box(test());
}

I expected to see this happen:

The string world to be pruned from the final binary.

Instead, this happened:

https://godbolt.org/z/WTM5jz987

The array was not pruned at all.

Meta

rustc --version --verbose:

godbolt rustc nightly.

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  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 by reproducing the provided const-slice example with the nightly rustc version and inspect the Godbolt output linked in the issue. Trace the compiler's optimization of the array containing "hello" and "world"; done means the unused "world" string is pruned from the final binary without changing the expected result.

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
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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