rust-clippy/book/src/development/emitting_lints.md

# Emitting a lint

Once we have [defined a lint](define_lints.md), written [UI tests](write_tests.md)
and chosen [the lint pass](lint_passes.md) for the lint, we can begin the
implementation of the lint logic so that we can emit it and gradually work
towards a lint that behaves as expected.

Note that we will not go into concrete implementation of a lint logic in this
chapter. We will go into details in later chapters as well as in two examples
of real Clippy lints.

To emit a lint, we must implement a pass (see [Lint Passes](lint_passes.md)) for the lint that we have
declared. In this example we'll implement a "late" lint, so take a look at the [LateLintPass][late_lint_pass]
documentation, which provides an abundance of methods that we can implement for our lint.

```rust
pub trait LateLintPass<'tcx>: LintPass {
    // Trait methods
}
```

By far the most common method used for Clippy lints is [`check_expr` method][late_check_expr],
this is because Rust is an expression language and, more often than not,
the lint we want to work on must examine expressions.

> _Note:_ If you don't fully understand what expressions are in Rust,
> take a look at the official documentation on [expressions][rust_expressions]

Other common ones include the [`check_fn` method][late_check_fn] and the
[`check_item` method][late_check_item].

### Emitting a lint

Inside the trait method that we implement, we can write down the lint logic
and emit the lint with suggestions.

Clippy's [diagnostics] provides quite a few diagnostic functions that we can
use to emit lints. Take a look at the documentation to pick one that suits
your lint's needs the best. Some common ones you will encounter in the Clippy
repository includes:

- [`span_lint`]: Emits a lint without providing any other information
- [`span_lint_and_note`]: Emits a lint and adds a note
- [`span_lint_and_help`]: Emits a lint and provides a helpful message
- [`span_lint_and_sugg`]: Emits a lint and provides a suggestion to fix the code
- [`span_lint_and_then`]: Like `span_lint`, but allows for a lot of output customization.

```rust
impl<'tcx> LateLintPass<'tcx> for LintName {
    fn check_expr(&mut self, cx: &LateContext<'tcx>, expr: &'tcx Expr<'_>)  {
        // Imagine that `some_lint_expr_logic` checks for requirements for emitting the lint
        if some_lint_expr_logic(expr) {
            span_lint_and_help(
                cx, // < The context
                LINT_NAME, // < The name of the lint in ALL CAPS
                expr.span, // < The span to lint
                "message on why the lint is emitted",
                None, // < An optional help span (to highlight something in the lint)
                "message that provides a helpful suggestion",
            );
        }
    }
}
```

> Note: The message should be matter of fact and avoid
> capitalization and punctuation. If multiple sentences are needed, the messages should probably be split up into an
> error + a help / note / suggestion message.

## Suggestions: Automatic fixes

Some lints know what to change in order to fix the code. For example, the lint
[`range_plus`][range_plus_one] warns for ranges where the user wrote `x..y + 1` instead of using an
[inclusive range][inclusive_range] (`x..=1`). The fix to this code would be changing the `x..y + 1` expression
to `x..=y`. **This is where suggestions come in**.

A suggestion is a change that the lint provides to fix the issue it is linting.
The output looks something like this (from the example earlier):

```text
error: an inclusive range would be more readable
  --> $DIR/range_plus_minus_one.rs:37:14
   |
LL |     for _ in 1..1 + 1 {}
   |              ^^^^^^^^ help: use: `1..=1`
```

**Not all suggestions are always right**, some of them require human supervision, that's why we have
[Applicability][applicability].

Applicability indicates confidence in the correctness of the suggestion, some are always right
(`Applicability::MachineApplicable`), but we use `Applicability::MaybeIncorrect` and others when talking about a lint
that may be incorrect.

---

The same lint `LINT_NAME` but that emits a suggestion would be something like this:

```rust
impl<'tcx> LateLintPass<'tcx> for LintName {
    fn check_expr(&mut self, cx: &LateContext<'tcx>, expr: &'tcx Expr<'_>)  {
        // Imagine that `some_lint_expr_logic` checks for requirements for emitting the lint
        if some_lint_expr_logic(expr) {
            span_lint_and_sugg( // < Note this change
                cx,
                LINT_NAME,
                span,
                "message on why the lint is emitted",
                "use",
                "suggestion (don't forget to integrate things from the source, like variable names)", // < Suggestion
                Applicability::MachineApplicable
            );
        }
    }
}
```

Suggestions generally use the [`format!`](format_macro) macro to interpolate the old values with the new ones.

## How to choose between notes, help messages and suggestions

Notes are presented separately from the main lint message, they provide useful information that the user needs to
understand why the lint was activated. They are the most helpful when attached to a span.

Example:

```text
error: calls to `std::mem::forget` with a reference instead of an owned value. Forgetting a reference does nothing.
  --> $DIR/drop_forget_ref.rs:10:5
   |
10 |     forget(&SomeStruct);
   |     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   |
   = note: `-D clippy::forget-ref` implied by `-D warnings`
note: argument has type &SomeStruct
  --> $DIR/drop_forget_ref.rs:10:12
   |
10 |     forget(&SomeStruct);
   |            ^^^^^^^^^^^
```

---

Help messages are specifically to help the user. These are used in situation where you can't provide a specific
machine applicable suggestion. They can also be attached to a span.

Example:

```text
error: constant division of 0.0 with 0.0 will always result in NaN
  --> $DIR/zero_div_zero.rs:6:25
   |
6  |     let other_f64_nan = 0.0f64 / 0.0;
   |                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^
   |
   = help: consider using `f64::NAN` if you would like a constant representing NaN
```

---

Suggestions are the most helpful, they are changes to the source code to fix the error. The magic
in suggestions is that tools like `rustfix` can detect them and automatically fix your code.

Example:

```text
error: This `.fold` can be more succinctly expressed as `.any`
--> $DIR/methods.rs:390:13
    |
390 |     let _ = (0..3).fold(false, |acc, x| acc || x > 2);
    |                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ help: try: `.any(|x| x > 2)`
    |
    = note: `-D fold-any` implied by `-D warnings`
```

### Snippets

Snippets are pieces of the source code (as a string), they are extracted generally using the [`snippet`][snippet_fn]
function.

For example, if you want to know how an item looks (and you know the item's span), you could use
`snippet(cx, span, "..")`.

## Final: Run UI Tests to Emit the Lint

Now, if we run our [UI test](write_tests.md), we should see that the compiler now
produce output that contains the lint message we designed.

The next step is to implement the logic properly, which is a detail that we will
cover in the next chapters.

[diagnostics]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/clippy_utils/diagnostics/index.html
[late_check_expr]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_lint/trait.LateLintPass.html#method.check_expr
[late_check_fn]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_lint/trait.LateLintPass.html#method.check_fn
[late_check_item]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_lint/trait.LateLintPass.html#method.check_item
[late_lint_pass]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/rustc_lint/trait.LateLintPass.html
[rust_expressions]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/reference/expressions.html
[`span_lint`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/beta/nightly-rustc/clippy_utils/diagnostics/fn.span_lint.html
[`span_lint_and_note`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/beta/nightly-rustc/clippy_utils/diagnostics/fn.span_lint_and_note.html
[`span_lint_and_help`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/clippy_utils/diagnostics/fn.span_lint_and_help.html
[`span_lint_and_sugg`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/nightly-rustc/clippy_utils/diagnostics/fn.span_lint_and_sugg.html
[`span_lint_and_then`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/beta/nightly-rustc/clippy_utils/diagnostics/fn.span_lint_and_then.html
[range_plus_one]: https://rust-lang.github.io/rust-clippy/master/index.html#range_plus_one
[inclusive_range]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/ops/struct.RangeInclusive.html
[applicability]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/beta/nightly-rustc/rustc_errors/enum.Applicability.html
[snippet_fn]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/beta/nightly-rustc/clippy_utils/source/fn.snippet.html