Clippy Book Chapter Updates Reborn: Macro Expansions

book/src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
     - [Basics](development/basics.md)
     - [Adding Lints](development/adding_lints.md)
     - [Type Checking](development/type_checking.md)
+    - [Macro Expansions](development/macro_expansions.md)
     - [Common Tools](development/common_tools_writing_lints.md)
     - [Infrastructure](development/infrastructure/README.md)
         - [Syncing changes between Clippy and rust-lang/rust](development/infrastructure/sync.md)

book/src/development/macro_expansions.md

@@ -0,0 +1,158 @@
+# Dealing with macros and expansions
+
+Sometimes we might encounter Rust macro expansions while working with Clippy.
+While macro expansions are not as dramatic and profound as the expansion
+of our universe, they can certainly bring chaos to the orderly world
+of code and logic.
+
+The general rule of thumb is that we should ignore code with macro
+expansions when working with Clippy because the code can be dynamic
+in ways that are difficult or impossible for us to foresee.
+
+## False Positives
+
+What exactly do we mean by _dynamic in ways that are difficult to foresee_?
+
+Macros are [expanded][expansion] in the `EarlyLintPass` level,
+so the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) is generated in place of macros.
+This means the code which we work with in Clippy is already expanded.
+
+If we wrote a new lint, there is a possibility that the lint is
+triggered in macro-generated code. Since this expanded macro code
+is not written by the macro's user but really by the macro's author,
+the user cannot and should not be responsible for fixing the issue
+that triggers the lint.
+
+Besides, a [Span] in a macro can be changed by the macro author.
+Therefore, any lint check related to lines or columns should be
+avoided since they might be changed at any time and become unreliable
+or incorrect information.
+
+Because of these unforeseeable or unstable behaviors, macro expansion
+should often not be regarded as a part of the stable API.
+This is also why most lints check if they are inside a macro or not
+before emitting suggestions to the end user to avoid false positives.
+
+## How to Work with Macros
+
+Several functions are available for working with macros.
+
+### The `Span.from_expansion` method
+
+We could utilize a `span`'s [`from_expansion`] method, which
+detects if the `span` is from a macro expansion / desugaring.
+This is a very common first step in a lint:
+
+```rust
+if expr.span.from_expansion() {
+    // We most likely want to ignore it.
+    return;
+}
+```
+
+### `Span.ctxt` method
+
+The `span`'s context, given by the method [`ctxt`] and returning [SpanContext],
+represents if the span is from a macro expansion and, if it is, which
+macro call expanded this span.
+
+Sometimes, it is useful to check if the context of two spans are equal.
+For instance, suppose we have the following line of code that would
+expand into `1 + 0`:
+
+```rust
+// The following code expands to `1 + 0` for both `EarlyLintPass` and `LateLintPass`
+1 + mac!()
+```
+
+Assuming that we'd collect the `1` expression as a variable `left` and the
+`0`/`mac!()` expression as a variable `right`, we can simply compare their
+contexts. If the context is different, then we most likely are dealing with a
+macro expansion and should just ignore it:
+
+```rust
+if left.span.ctxt() != right.span.ctxt() {
+    // The code author most likely cannot modify this expression
+    return;
+}
+```
+
+> **Note**: Code that is not from expansion is in the "root" context.
+> So any spans whose `from_expansion` returns `false` can be assumed
+> to have the same context. Because of this, using `span.from_expansion()`
+> is often sufficient.
+
+Going a bit deeper, in a simple expression such as `a == b`,
+`a` and `b` have the same context.
+However, in a `macro_rules!` with `a == $b`, `$b` is expanded to
+an expression that contains a different context from `a`.
+
+Take a look at the following macro `m`:
+
+```rust
+macro_rules! m {
+    ($a:expr, $b:expr) => {
+        if $a.is_some() {
+            $b;
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+let x: Option<u32> = Some(42);
+m!(x, x.unwrap());
+```
+
+If the `m!(x, x.unwrapp());` line is expanded, we would get two expanded
+expressions:
+
+- `x.is_some()` (from the `$a.is_some()` line in the `m` macro)
+- `x.unwrap()` (corresponding to `$b` in the `m` macro)
+
+Suppose `x.is_some()` expression's span is associated with the `x_is_some_span` variable
+and `x.unwrap()` expression's span is associated with `x_unwrap_span` variable,
+we could assume that these two spans do not share the same context:
+
+```rust
+// x.is_some() is from inside the macro
+// x.unwrap() is from outside the macro
+assert_ne!(x_is_some_span.ctxt(), x_unwrap_span.ctxt());
+```
+
+### The `in_external_macro` function
+
+`rustc_middle::lint` provides a function ([`in_external_macro`]) that can
+detect if the given span is from a macro defined in a foreign crate.
+
+Therefore, if we really want a new lint to work with macro-generated code,
+this is the next line of defense to avoid macros not defined inside
+the current crate since it is unfair to the user if Clippy lints code
+which the user cannot change.
+
+For example, assume we have the following code that is being examined
+by Clippy:
+
+```rust
+#[macro_use]
+extern crate a_foreign_crate_with_macros;
+
+// `foo` macro is defined in `a_foreign_crate_with_macros`
+foo!("bar");
+```
+
+Also assume that we get the corresponding variable `foo_span` for the
+`foo` macro call, we could decide not to lint if `in_external_macro`
+results in `true` (note that `cx` can be `EarlyContext` or `LateContext`):
+
+```rust
+if in_external_macro(cx.sess(), foo_span) {
+    // We should ignore macro from a foreign crate.
+    return;
+}
+```
+
+[`ctxt`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/nightly-rustc/rustc_span/struct.Span.html#method.ctxt
+[expansion]: https://rustc-dev-guide.rust-lang.org/macro-expansion.html#expansion-and-ast-integration
+[`from_expansion`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/nightly-rustc/rustc_span/struct.Span.html#method.from_expansion
+[`in_external_macro`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/nightly-rustc/rustc_middle/lint/fn.in_external_macro.html
+[Span]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/nightly-rustc/rustc_span/struct.Span.html
+[SpanContext]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/nightly-rustc/rustc_span/hygiene/struct.SyntaxContext.html