rustdoc renders macro metavariable names instead of expanded literal const generic arguments
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Description
Code
I tried this code:
#![crate_type = "lib"]
pub trait Bound<const R: usize, const C: usize> {}
macro_rules! cartesian_bounds {
({$($item:tt)*}, $dimensions:tt) => {
cartesian_bounds!(@row {$($item)*}, $dimensions, $dimensions);
};
(@row {$($item:tt)*}, [], $columns:tt) => {
$($item)* {}
};
(@row {$($item:tt)*}, [$row:tt $(, $rows:tt)*], $columns:tt) => {
cartesian_bounds!(@emit {$($item)*}, $row, [$($rows),*], $columns);
};
(@emit {$($item:tt)*}, $row:tt, $rows:tt, [$($column:tt),*]) => {
cartesian_bounds!(@row {
$($item)* $(+ Bound<$row, $column>)*
}, $rows, [$($column),*]);
};
}
cartesian_bounds!({
pub trait Example<const N: usize>: Sized
}, [1, N]);
Then I generated the documentation and opened doc/rustdoc_macro_metavariable_repro/trait.Example.html:
rustdoc +nightly --edition=2024 rustdoc_macro_metavariable_repro.rs
Expected behavior
The trait declaration should contain the expanded const generic arguments:
pub trait Example<const N: usize>:
Sized
+ Bound<1, 1>
+ Bound<1, N>
+ Bound<N, 1>
+ Bound<N, N>
{ }
This agrees with the compiler's expanded output from:
rustc +nightly --edition=2024 -Zunpretty=expanded rustdoc_macro_metavariable_repro.rs
Actual behavior
rustdoc renders the metavariable names for literal arguments while resolved const parameters are rendered correctly:
pub trait Example<const N: usize>:
Sized
+ Bound<$row, $column>
+ Bound<$row, N>
+ Bound<N, $column>
+ Bound<N, N>
{ }
The generated crate is valid and the macro expansion used for compilation contains Bound<1, 1>, so this appears to affect only rustdoc's rendering of the declaration.
Changing the repeated captures from tt fragments to expr fragments makes rustdoc render the literals correctly. Moving [1, N] into the macro definition also avoids the problem. These changes appear to alter the spans carried by the expanded literal const arguments.
Version
rustc 1.99.0-nightly (ad3d0bc14 2026-07-31)
binary: rustc
commit-hash: ad3d0bc141a02cf446e384136d250a1f6950fed5
commit-date: 2026-07-31
host: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
release: 1.99.0-nightly
LLVM version: 22.1.8
The issue also reproduces with stable rustdoc 1.97.1 (8bab26f4f 2026-07-14).
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
Use rustdoc_macro_metavariable_repro.rs as the reproduction and compare the generated trait.Example.html with rustc -Zunpretty=expanded output. Trace how tt captures and spans are rendered for const generic arguments; done when the HTML shows 1 and N correctly for all four Bound arguments while compilation remains valid.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- compilers, documentation
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 48/100